Rubber ducks make Jeep driving fun as dashboard craze arrives in Erie

Joyce Tice's husband gave her a special present after the Erie woman bought a used 2020 Jeep Wrangler Rubicon in March.

It was a little pink rubber duck.

Four months later, Tice's dashboard is lined with about 25 different rubber ducks, including one in a Buffalo Bills uniform and another dressed as a police officer. She bought one of them, the Bills duck, and the rest have been given to her by other Jeep owners.

"You park in a parking lot, and when you come back someone has put a duck on your Jeep door or on the hood," said Tice, 49. "I just love it. I'm all in."

The phenomenon is known as Duck Duck Jeep and it started in 2020 by a Canadian woman, Allison Parliament, who bought some rubber ducks and distributed them after an unpleasant encounter with another driver, according to officialduckduckjeep.com.

Four years later, it seems that a majority of the Jeep Wranglers driving around Erie have at least one rubber duck, and often many more, sitting on their dashboards.

"It started around here about two years ago, but it really has taken off in the past year or so," said Matt Clark, general manager of Humes Chrysler Jeep Dodge Ram in Waterford Township. "We are now giving them away to people who come to the dealership. We bought 250 patriotic ducks for the Fourth of July and had to order more of them."

What is the 'Jeep wave'?

Mike Berry received his first rubber duck three years ago when someone put it on the driver's side door handle of his 2012 Wrangler.

More than a dozen ducks now stretch across his dashboard. He hasn't purchased any of them himself.

"Jeep owners consider ourselves a community," said Berry, 54, while attending a Jeep Night at Oliver's Beer Garden. "We give each other the 'Jeep wave' which is with two fingers, like the sign for victory. It started with the veterans in World War II when they were driving those Jeeps in Europe."

Tice said that she knows all about the "Jeep wave," sharing it so often with other Jeep owners that her hand gets sore.

Another of her favorite activities is to have her son, Ian, or niece, Lucy Grabowski, place a duck on a Jeep owner's door in a parking lot and then watch from afar.

"I'm somewhat apprehensive about giving a duck to someone who doesn't have at least one on their dashboard, because maybe they don't have any for a reason," Tice said. "But we put one on the door of a Jeep at the Wegmans on West Ridge Road and watched as the owner, a girl, found it. She just smiled so much; it was so cute."

Duck Duck Jeep especially popular among Wrangler owners

Though the "rules" for Duck Duck Jeep are vague, Tice and Berry said it mostly involves Wranglers, the vehicles that resemble a traditional Jeep.

People can join online organizations devoted to the activity, including Duck Duck Jeep Erie on Facebook. It was on these online groups where many Jeep owners first learned about Parliament's death in June.

But most of the memories Tice and Berry associate with Duck Duck Jeep are happy ones.

"Like when we spotted a blue Jeep with (the cartoon character) Stitch stickers all over it," Tice said. "It must have had four to five rows of ducks on its dashboard. Some of them were just piled up on top of each other."

Why is Duck Duck Jeep so popular? Tice has a theory.

"People who own Jeeps are more likely to be passionate and live in the community," Tice said. "They want to spread happiness."

Contact David Bruce at [email protected]. Follow him on X @ETNBruce.

This article originally appeared on Erie Times-News: Erie Jeep owners thrilled with rubber duck craze