I came out of the grocery store today and found a note on my windshield. Someone witnessed a car bashing into my rear bumper and jotted down the license plate.
The left corner of the bumper is badly scratched and cracked. It makes me sad looking at it, but I just keep telling myself it’s only cosmetic. At least none of the lights were smashed. Plus, I love this car so much that it’s not like I had plans of re-selling it.
But it’s just the principle of the thing, I guess. I spent a lot of $$ for this car, and till today I was proud of myself for keeping it in tip-top shape. And now it’s got a big blemish.
Have you ever had experience tracking down a parking lot hit-and-run? Do I call the police and file a report? I don’t want the person to get in trouble (even though they probably should). I just want the cost of repairs. What would you do?
That is bad enough to not be a simple oops. It took a lot of force to do that much damage so the other driver knew what they did and still scrammed. Fuck 'em. You should definitely have that fixed on their dime. It will most likely require a complete bumper replacement and those aren’t cheap. It isn’t just superficial damage either. The bumper did its job in sacrificing itself for the sake of the rest of the car but it is compromised now and needs to be replaced in cause you get hit in that spot again. I would start with the non-emergency number for the police. Report it as a hit and run. You will probably need the report to file a claim against their insurance company (or just them if they don’t have insurance). You can also use your insurance company to file a claim against theirs as long as you make sure that doing it that way won’t affect your rates.
I wouldn’t care too much about keeping them out of trouble. They lost that option the minute they drove away. They should pay for the destruction of your property.
Did the note writer leave their name and contact information? I had a car get hit in my reserved parking space at my apartment complex with corresponding damage to the vehicle that lived in the reserved parking space directly behind me. The cops said that no one witnessed it except the person who hit my car, they surely wouldn’t admit anything, so nothing to see here, move along. :mad:
You might contact your insurance agent, explain the damage and the note, and see if they have resources to repair the car and hit up the deadbeat for payment.
You’re entitled to use the services that you pay for and automobile insurance is certainly a service that you pay for. Your insurance company is obligated to make you whole for this incident and it’s up to them to protect their own interests. It’s up to you to protect your own interests.
As such, you should report this incident to your insurance company to the best of your ability, including the anonymous note. As long as you do this (full disclosure, which is your obligation) it’s not your problem how or if your insurance company recovers their cost. Reporting an incident were nobody was in control of your vehicle should not, under any circumstances, affect your insurance rates and it’s not your job to track down the offender.
You may have done yourself a disservice by not calling to get a police report at the time, but I wouldn’t let that get in the way of filing a claim. Call your insurance company and file a claim, immediately.
