A sneaky group in San Francisco started turning the idea of the Smart car sideways this weekend.

Between Sunday night and this morning, three Smart cars were found in the Bay Area that were suspiciously turned over. According to NBC, all three cars were either standing on their rear bumper with the headlights pointing toward the sky or vice versa. An eyewitness said he saw the culprits today at around 1 a.m.

"They looked like they were up to no good, and sure enough, they huddled around it and lifted it up," Brandon Michael told NBC.

According to Michael, there were around six to eight people wearing hooded sweatshirts.

"First off, I was shocked," Michael told KTVU. "It was a little bit just like silly in my mind at first. [It was] definitely an act of vandalism."

The prank has resulted in some funny pictures of the tiny cars in unique positions.

"They look like they are dachshunds sitting up on their hind legs," Michael explained.

Gordon Shyy, a San Francisco police officer, says the criminals have not been caught yet.

So it seems these pranksters are taking cow tipping to a new, more technological level, but why? Apparently they are not the first. The first Smart car debuted in the United States in 2008. In 2009, the Toronto Star reported that "Tipping smart cars [is] the latest prank trend." By 2011, there was already a video of people flipping the eco-friendly car during a riot in Canada. There is even a Facebook page dedicated to "Smart Car Tipping."

"Tip at your own risk! Please report any Smart Car Tipping you witness to this Smart Car Tipping group page," the page reads. "The passive documenting thru photographic means [any] Smart Car Tipping activity is strongly encouraged."

The cars are an easy target because they only weigh 1,500 pounds, versus something like a Ford Focus, which weighs almost 3,000 pounds, or a Hummer, which weighs more than 8,000 pounds. The pranks come at a cost, however; Smart cars start at over $12,000 in the United States.

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Follow Scharon Harding on Twitter: @SH____4.

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