My neighboor did a hit & run on my car.

The BBQ Pit
1

Yesterday morning, I found the bumper of my Subaru bent and the driver’s side headlight smashed. It was parked in front of my house when I spotted it. Originally I thought “damn thoughtless parking lot idiots” and gave myself a hard time for not noticing before then. It irks me because I’m not rich by any means, money is tight, and its a Very old car, meaning the new headlight module might be hard to find (1992 Loyale). Damn.

So, I’m sitting on the curb and looking at the damage and generally angry at myself for not seeing it before when I note some sparkly stuff on the ground by the front end of the car. I pick one up. Its a small piece of clear lens-quality clear plastic. And it matches the headlight plastic of my broken headlight. Huh. Plastic pieces here must mean I got hit … here. In front of my house. And it becomes obvious to me that he only way it could have happened from the angle of the damage done was that someone in my neighbor across the street’s driveway backed their car into my car as they pulled out of her driveway. And no one admitted doing it. And she’s the only person who regularly parks there.

Well, lets flesh out the options a little shall we? The neighbor across the street is a 20-something girl who works in the city and takes the bus to work every day. (We usually say ‘hi’ as I’m loading my kids into the car to go to school) Her mother either lives with her part of the year or has moved out into her own place; I haven’t seen her car in the driveway since Thanksgiving. The neighbor drives a big-ass SUV on weekends and of late, has taking to (she told me) heading down to LBI on Fridays and heading back on Sunday nights. Her Excursion/Yukon/Mack-Over-Compensation-Truck is not in the driveway now, so I can’t inspect the bumper for damage. Hell, there may not be damage (I’m hoping at least for an incriminating scrape), but the question comes down to where do I take this next? My wife says the 10-15 degree bent bumper and broken light will cost over $1000 to fix.

So, who am I going to be today: Patsy or Asshole?

Patsy: I chalk it up to ‘asshole neighbors who I have to live next to’, bitch, grumble, go get it fixed, and rub my neck as I write out the check. Let it slip out at the next block party or something.

Patsy2: I ring her bell and say ‘Excuse me Miss. Did you notice tapping my car when backing out of your driveway? It has a bent bumper and a broken headlamp’. In this scenario, she’ll either try to weasel out with a smile or a highschool-pout while thinking ‘SUCKER!’ behind it and I’d do the Ward Cleaver dance: “Oh, don’t you worry about it Lil Miss. Its an awfully big truck you have there and holding you responsible for not being able to handle it on suburban streets just wouldn’t be neighborly. Don’t you worry about a thing head pat I’ll just pay for all that pesky damage you caused, and you just go about your business. Scot-Free.”

Patsy light: I ring her bell, show her the damage, and ask her to pay for it, knowing full well that she’ll either say someone else turned around in her driveway and did it or she’ll just refuse to pay it. And I’d probably be left to walk back across the street with my tail between my legs and still have to pay the body-shop bill.

Asshole: I don’t move anything. I call the cops. I force one of Loach’s colleagues to drive all the way out here, and fill out paperwork. I mention how the angle supports it being hit by someone backing out of the driveway from across the street. I report it as ‘hit and run’ (that’s serious in NJ) and point them straight to the perp, knowing that it was either her or a guest in her driveway that she’ll have to point them to that did this. I let her/her guest deal with the $10,000 fine, loss of license, etc., while I go through my insurance company for repairs and my rates go up. She stops being a friendly neighbor and I’m the one getting bad-mouthed at the next block party. (“He called the cops on that sweet young girl. Imagine!!!”)

People, I’m angry. I’m venting. My anger is my own. But just for grins and giggles, if your car got hit like mine did, wouldn’t you be angry? Wouldn’t you post about it? And wouldn’t you want to do something about it? Like fantasize about pounding on her door to say “Hey, you hit my car! I know it, you know it, and I’ve got witnesses to support it. You have 30 minutes to crank $500 cash out of an ATM and put it in my hands for the repairs, or the police will be here in 35. Here’s a print out of the penalties for hit & run in this state. It’s a pretty easy win for the county prosecutor too. Clocks running. Tick-tock, tick-tock.”

2

Well, this did actually happen to me. And I was angry at first. But, no, my first reaction wasn’t to post about it.

We rang the doorbell. It did not go as you pessimistically describe. The young guy who lived there said, “Yeah, it was my new girlfriend. Sorry, she’s not used to my driveway. Do you want a check or her insurance info?”

And we got a body shop quote, took the check, got it fixed, and everyone in the neighborhood lived happily ever after (except for the assholes with the barking dog).

Why not try it yourself? Much more productive that venting in the Pit.
P.S. We lived in central NH; YMMV…

3

Call the cops. Don’t point them at the obvious culprit; if it’s that obvious, they’ll figure it out on their own.

If you don’t do this, it is going to cost you big bucks that you should not have to pay.

4

I fail to see how this makes you an asshole in any way shape or form. She already had the chance to fix thing the neighborly way but she chose to fuck you over instead, i would have no remorse calling the cops.

5

Sequential Thread Titles:

Well, I guess someone had a busy night.

6

Happened to us, too. We also thought we were hit in a parking lot, and even went to the lot we thought it happened in and posted signs asking for witnesses to come forward.

A few days later, a neighbor casually mentioned something about our upstairs neighbor hitting our car, thinking she’d surely have told us about it by then. He’d been sitting outside when she did it and heard it happen (it was around the side of the building he couldn’t see, but she drove right past him in the shared driveway, turned to back into her space and that’s when he heard the crash). He said another neighbor was out there at the same time, taking out his trash, and actually saw it happen.

So I just went up to her door and said, “Hi, I’m going to need your insurance information to file a claim for the damage you did when you hit my car.” She played dumb, but handed over the info. After that, it was a matter for my insurance company to investigate, which they did, and we were paid for the claim with no consequence to our rates.

Good luck!

7

Ditto. Also, do people in the real world actually get charged with “hit and run” for bumping into a parked car? All she has to do is say “oh, I didn’t notice” or “I left a note, but it must have blown away.”

8

UPDATE

I found the car that hit me. It pays to walk around the neighborhood.

  1. I was wrong. (Repeat as needed or until you feel better) The girl across the street didn’t hit me.

  2. The daughter of the town councilman that lives next to me has side-swipe damage from her rear passenger door in a line straight back to her rear passenger tire. There’s clear plastic imbedded in her paint on top & black rubber scrape below. (coincidentally, my car has crushed clear plastic on top and black rubber on the bumper below)

It looks like she was trying to pull into their driveway, cut her wheel too tight and smooshed my drivers side front bumper.

  1. The damage is at exactly the same height.

Her father said “Well, she would have told me if she hit anything, but I’ll ask her”. Her father is generally a nice guy (and has pull in town, so he’s potentially a powerful enemy). He’s admitting nothing, offering nothing, even though it looks kinda obvious.

Now I’m debating whether to call the cops.

9

Classic joke:

People have seen me hit your car. They are watching me write this note. They think I am leaving my name and phone number. They are wrong.

10

Take pictures. Now. Before they rid of the evidence. Get shots of the cars as awhole, as well as close-ups of the damage on her car and yours. Also shots of the scene generally.

11

Yes, take photos now! And if you don’t hear back from the councilman soon, call the police. You should at least have a police report if you file a claim with your insurance. You insurance company could go after his insurance company, so a police report and photos are important.

12

Call the cops – I can’t even imagine why this is a question for you. A lot of insurances need a police report before they will pay out for repairs anyway.

And for Og’s sake don’t move anything until the cops have seen the damage in situ. And as others have saod, take pictures of both vehicles.

Oh and did you ask the dad if the damage is new? That should answer the question of whether she would tell him or not. If the damage is new, clearly she didn’t tell him.

13

Charging up the Digital camera as we speak.

He said it happened at where she works, in a mall parking lot. btw- damage is Very new.

14

Call your insurance company and give them the councilman’s name and phone number. They will investigate. They will demand that their vehicle not be repaired or touched in any way pending said investigation. They will insist on being provided their insurance information. They will follow up because they don’t want to pay out a claim, they want the other guy to.

Take pictures of the broken plastic lying on the ground in front of your vehicle, as evidence that your car was clearly parked when hit, and that you are not the one who hit her car. Bring a yard stick or tape measure to put up against both vehicles when you take pictures, to show the height of the damage on each car.

Go to the police and file a report immediately after taking pictures of both vehicles from every angle you can.

These are all the steps I took when my neighbor hit my car, and, as I said, it was all resolved to my favor.

15

Take photos. Now.

16

So what you really got was a denial, though not in specific terms. Yes, he knew of the damage, and no, it wasn’t done in a collision with your car.

Let me make a predictive guess. The story will be that her car was sideswiped while parked at the mall, leaving precious daughter entirely blameless, and no other party to confirm it.

So, you absolutely need to call the cops. You need a trained accident investigator to look at both vehicles and determine whether there is or isn’t a connection.

17

Umm, is the camera charged yet!? Take those pictures!

18

Pictures are taken of both cars. Police have been called and have taken a report. I showed the office the damage to both cars & said that they match in height, scrape coloring, and geographic proximity. (She parks 20-30 feet from my car) The officer said he’d talk to them, but since there’s no witnesses, if my neighbor denies it, that’s pretty much it. I can pick up a copy of the police report on/after Thursday between 8am and 4pm at the police station in town.

Calling the insurance company now.

19

That’s pretty much it as far as the police are concerned. The police didn’t get involved in my case, either. But you want to have a police report made and on file, mostly because the insurance company will ask you if you filed one, and they’ll put a copy of it with your file so that any observations made by the reporting officer are on record. They will be the ones to pursue the investigation for a payout so you can get your car fixed.

20

Seconded. What the neighbor did wasn’t a criminal offense (well, it might have been reckless driving, but probably not). It was a civil matter.