By JOSIE CLARKE
One of Auckland's original squeegee bandits has found a sensible day job - but drivers have not seen the last of him.
Sky Scott, whose roadside windscreen-washing antics have entertained and infuriated motorists since 1991, has reluctantly turned to shop window-washing after a string of council fines and police
warnings.
For almost a decade, Mr Scott worked the traffic lights at busy city intersections, earning up to $600 a day.
Word of the lucrative trade spread, and by 1993 windscreen washers had become a common sight all over the city.
But complaints began to pour in to the police and council offices from motorists who felt intimidated when they refused to pay for the service, and police feared that the roadside entrepreneurs were a safety hazard.
In June 1998, the Auckland City Council introduced a bylaw that raised the maximum fine for the workers from $10 to $500 - and stung Mr Scott with fines totalling $2000.
Sensing serious trouble was around the corner, Mr Scott has opted for the safer option of washing shop windows.
He now earns about $100 a day, starting at 7 am and often working through until 10 pm, but is determined to return to the road at weekends to make up the shortfall in his income.
"I'm not on a benefit. If I don't work I don't eat, so I have every right to get out there and survive.
"They'll never be able to stop guys doing it, for the simple reason that the money is just too good."
He admits that some of the windscreen washers he used to work with were scruffy, and that the job is dangerous.
"I don't recommend it for the kids. That was the problem. There were too many kids doing it."
Mr Scott has a 7-year-old daughter living in Auckland, and plans to stay here to watch her grow up.
He has no intention of ever giving up being a "squeegee bandit."
"I'll be out there when I'm old with a cane in one hand and a squeegee in the other."
