Today at Wal-mart, I backed out of a spot, came to a stop, and then a woman backed out of her spot and hit the side of my car. Yelling ensued, and the police were summoned. She kept insisting that I hit her and it was my fault. She could not accept the fact that since my car was stopped and she was moving that it was her fault. In her mind my stopped car hit her moving car. There was even a random witness who agreed with her, and said I backed out really fast and it was my fault. She kept repeating how fast I was going. The officer told me that he was confused because my story was the opposite of two other people.
While talking to the police I noticed the security cameras pointed right at us. I pointed to the cameras and asked the officer if they record. He wasn’t sure but said he would look into it.
When I got home there was a message from the officer that he had reviewed the camera footage. The woman was 100% at fault, she backed into my stopped car. And the witness was wrong too, I was backing up very slowly. YAY!
So what the fuck is wrong with people? How can they stand there and lie out of their ass to the police when they know they are completely wrong? Why can’t grown up adults take responsibility when they do something wrong? If she she would have said “My bad, let’s make this right” maybe I wouldn’t have called the cops. But when she runs around blaming me and is wrong, well the shit is on bitch.
If it wasn’t for the security cameras, it would have been my word against the the words of two others. And I would have to pay for my repairs and have my insurance go up. All because those assholes lied. Luckily it worked out in my favor! So today I thank security cameras and cops who follow up and rightly assign blame. And yes it makes me feel awesome to have this lying idiot proven wrong. Especially in front of her teen-age daughter, whom I hope learned a lesson about lying and taking responsibility.
They probably weren’t lying. Probably, both the woman who hit you and the eyewitness both genuinely thought that you were pulling out really fast. We don’t actually observe nearly as much as we think we do: Mostly, we just observe bits and pieces of the world around us, and our brains fill in the gaps. If both of the other people on site had momentary lapses of attention, and went from “there’s nobody there” to “there’s a car there that another car has crashed into”, then they’ll conclude that the car must have gotten there really quickly, because they aren’t aware of the lapse.
Which is why cameras are so great-- They don’t have momentary lapses, or if they do, it’s known when they do and how long the lapses are. So they can’t be deceived: At worst, they can give a known error range on things like speeds.
she lied so you’d have to pay to fix her car and not her paying for your car. A lot of folks will lie for several hundred or a couple thousand dollars.
You’re not done yet. Do you know if the cop issued the woman a ticket? Do you know of the cop made any kind of official report stating that a review of the tape showed clearly she was 100% at fault?
If not, in the next couple of days they’ll record over the tape, and it’ll be back to he said/she said. This woman is going to tell her insurance company that you hit her. She’ll say something like “He seemed like a nice enough guy so I didn’t call the cops about it”.
There’s something ironic about this being an age where people are clamoring for total video surveillance of all public places as a tool against government abuse of power.
Funny how these things work out. I’m still undecided. Universal surveillance could do a lot of good. Abusing it could do lots of ill, I guess.
Regarding the OP, I had an accident in a parking lot one time. Turns out it was an insurance scam, and I really, really wanted the cops to come but they said “no injuries, no cops.” I got fucked over. Well, I guess the insurance company got fucked over. Even the insurance company didn’t care. “Just lose in court, we’ll pay.” Bizzare.
“…a woman backed out of her spot and hit the side of my car…”
And then she proceeded to argue that you somehow managed to hit her rear bumper with the side of your car. While you were in sideways gear of course. It’s simply fucking amazing how many people expect their bullshit to be believed.
I was in a lot one time and a woman plowed into my driver’s side door. Scared the bejeezuz out of me! When I finally extricated myself from the car via the passenger side door and walked up to her, she began to literally wave her finger in my face and accuse me of running into her. With my door. :rolleyes:
I used to be an auto insurance liability adjuster. I’ve heard your story a million times.
Me: They’re saying you hit them.
Insured: But all of this evidence says otherwise. How can people do that?
Me: Because people are lying liars who lie lyingly.
Sometimes the video won’t work, especially if it proves the cop wrong.
I installed cameras and security DVRs for a bar, and between the interior and the exterior of the bar and the strip mall, there are 32 cameras (sounds crazy, I know, but that’s what’s needed to cover the place).
One of the delivery trucks was pulling into the bar. As any fool knows, trucks make wide turns - it says so right on the back! Except for this one idiot lady in her stupid SUV. She saw the truck was getting ready to turn into our lot, and she thought she could speed up to get past the truck before he turned and wound up getting hit by the truck while in his blind spot.
I was at the bar, saw the crash. By the time I got out there, the copy had bought her bullshit story.
I told everyone that I had video. The cop came in, I showed him the video of her speeding up trying to squeeze past the truck in her idiot-wagon. He disagreed, mostly because he had already ruled.
I contacted the company he drove for, and made sure their insurance people got the video, and was prepared to appear in court to testify about the video. I never heard anything more about it, so I assume her claim disappeared as soon as the video was brought in. It was her fault, but she wanted to weasel out of the fix, but it was his job on the line!
I don’t know if the officer got a copy of the video, but he said he would include what he saw in the official accident report. So I guess that’s pretty good proof anyways. I really don’t know if I could get a copy of it anyways.
And yes people are lying liars. I doubt the woman got a ticket on private property, but I wish she did for being a bad lying driver. And that officer is going to get a nice thank you card to show to his higher ups. My wife actually told me that she doubted he would follow up on it, which he did.
Ironically, while in Wal-Mart I showed my wife a $40 dash cam and joked that I should buy it. Not that it would have recorded next to me. Maybe I should buy four of them!
Good luck getting the footage from WalMart. I’m surprised they even let the cop look at it, they usually won’t give it up unless it helps THEM to defend themselves in a liability suit, or as evidence in wrongdoing against their property.
As an insurance guy, I gotta say nothing feels better than calling someone out in a straight up lie and being able to watch them watch the video. Dash cams are still not ubiquitous, but I’m waiting impatiently.
I dunno, she looked back & didn’t see you. Blind spot? Didn’t really turn her head that far? Therefore, the only logical explanations in her mind are that you were suddenly returned by aliens after they finished their anal probing or that you pulled out really fast, & since she never saw a shadow of the spacecraft, well…
Also see Robert Sheckley,“Pas de Trois of the Chef and the Waiter and the Customer,” which can be found in his collection of short stories, “Can you feel anything when I do this?”
Much of which can be negated with video. Thank Og for video.