Sabotage

The word sabotage comes from the French word for shoe, which is sabot. The word came about when disgruntled French factory workers wrecked machinery by throwing their wooden shoes into the gears.

Here’s an example of another sort of sabotage – sneakers flung into the wires above East 50th Street, just east of College Avenue in Indianapolis in December, 1985. I lived just up the street at 5009 N. College at the time.