New (to us, but practically new) car, great condition. We notice yesterday that there are HUGE scratches (with white stuff that I assumed was paint) all around the back driver side corner. We park in a small lot inside our apartment complex, assigned spots. Neighbors (who park to the left of us) drive something that isn’t white, however, looking at their car I see white smears and big scratches on the front passenger corner. Seems pretty obvious what happened, especially since they slammed into a nearby pillar last year backing out, so they’re obviously not the most careful drivers.
Trouble is, they didn’t leave a note or anything. No way they didn’t notice, so they’re obviously not up for admitting guilt. What recourse do we have? I got good pictures. Girlfriend was going to leave them a note, but I’m concerned if we say anything they’ll try to cover it up. Not sure what best course of action is.
Kolbex I thought I’d share a story about my coworker because it could have been worse. On one particular workday on Friday, my coworker was in the office, and fortunately his stay-at-home wife had his two kids with her while she was running errands. He got an emergency call at work and had to take off.
Apparently his neighbor chose that day to train his 15-year-old daughter how to drive the car. Not just any car, a Mustang 5.0, and a manual. Parse that for a second.
His wife said, “somebody hit our house.”
What actually happened was the neighbor was trying to train his daughter to drive and she had goosed the car using manual out of the driveway, freaked out with her foot on the gas, accelerated to a decent speed, crossed the road, gone up my coworkers front steps and plowed the mustang into the bay window and front living room of my coworkers house. She ruptured plumbing, broke electrical conduits, plowed through a load bearing wall, etc.
At some point in the aftermath with police and fire, they had to call and have everything shut off, gas/electric/water. The house was deemed unsafe for living until repairs. Insurance had them moved into an extended stay hotel. This is two adults, two kids and two pets. FOR SIX MONTHS. Everything they had in a freezer and fridge was lost. All food had to be removed in case of rodents. Quite a bit of furniture and items in their living room were completely ruined. Because the front of the house was open while crews worked on the it, they had a rodent problem after moving back in. They still had issues that weren’t quite the same up to the point they moved 3 years after that.
So I guess I’m trying to say, it could have been worse. I hope the best for you and getting the car repaired.
Haha, it sure could have! Although we don’t own a house, and our apartment is on the second floor, so if they managed that it would have been extremely impressive and also the landlord’s problem.
There was, which covered the home repair and quite a bit less than you would expect for putting the family out for 6 months.
One huge issue is that my coworker got home before police. His neighbor was attempting to get him to lie and say he (the father) was driving the car, not his young daughter. My coworker did NOT do that, and told the police the truth and feared reprisal for quite some time from that neighbor. (The neighbor being one of the less desirable elements of the neighborhood, aka loud redneck.)
“Hey, my stupidity just ruined your life for at least the next six months. But do you mind lying to police, and risking criminal penalties for the lying, to save my ass?”
