On a bright, warm Thursday afternoon in Berlin’s Kreuzberg neighborhood, Bessel Park was crowded with residents strolling in the park. Cars crept up the cobblestone street, among them, a large, gray van with a s logo prominently displaying the obscene acronym “MILFS”.
A wave of vandalism has damaged countless vehicles from the car-sharing company MILES with the crude acronym, which means “Mother I’d Like to F***”. MILES, a Berlin-based car-sharing company, rents cars and trucks around the city. Pranksters have taken to scraping off the bottom line of the letter “E” in the company’s decal, which is plastered on the side of their trucks, transforming it.
Since MILES first launched in Berlin in 2017, isolated incidents of this vandalism have grown into a trend. Social media posts, articles, and countless confused newcomers—many of whom initially believed the company was genuinely called MILFS—illustrate just how widespread the issue has become.
The prank has gained traction not only because some find it strangely amusing but also due to how effortlessly it can be carried out. The design of the logo makes altering it as simple as scraping away a single portion of a plastic decal. MILF’s widespread visibility fuels the cycle—there are more than 7,000 thousand MILES cars in Berlin, and they are constantly on the move. Prospective vandals encounter the altered logo and feel compelled to replicate the prank, turning MILFS into a self-perpetuating phenomenon.
“When I first moved here in January, I thought the company was genuinely called MILFS,” said Audrey Fitzgerald, a student at NYU Berlin. Fitzgerald recalled she realized the real name of the brand after spotting an unaltered truck after weeks of only seeing vandalized ones.
As of February, the company had filed hundreds of vandalism reports with Berlin’s police department. However, a Berlin law states that vandalism reports can only be filed if the perpetrator is caught in the act, MILES representatives say.
MILES has attempted to combat the issue by issuing public statements and filing property damage claims. While the company declined to comment on this article, in a statement to Bild magazine, MILES representative Nora Goette acknowledged the challenge: “There have been cases where people have been caught. But unfortunately, that’s not the norm.”
MILES, despite its best efforts, continues to struggle to curtail the rash of vandalization. However, some Berliners argue the company should embrace the trend. “They should just rename themselves to MILFS. This vandalism gag is just free marketing,” wrote a Reddit user in response to a post featuring a picture of a MILFS truck. “Exactly, I’ve noticed a few in traffic and thought it was funny. It’s not “obscene,” kids don’t know what it means,” replied another user.