Dinner Delayed for Hit and Run!

[LillFilly]

Pulled into the strip mall parking lot to go to a restaurant there. Driving down one of the isles, I saw a car backing-up from the parking on my right. Problem was she just kept backing and backing and backing into one of the ONLY cars parked in the near empty row across from her! My passenger said "Oh, sh*t she hit it!" and I saw the car shudder and she stopped, then kept pulling forward a bit, looking back, forward, looking back, yelling at her passenger. I saw a couple standing by their car a few spaces down waving at the woman and gesturing; their faces made it obvious she'd hit the car. As she pulled away and started passing me I could see the football + sized dent she'd left in the car's (a very NEW car) bumper! I tried to grab my phone and get a picture of her, but had to move out of traffic. By that time she'd seen all of us watching her, decided she wasn't going to stop, cut the corner of the island at the end of the parking row, jumped the curb and took off. My passenger and the other couple got the plat and I got the make and model, so I called the police.

Long story short, police found the owners of the hit car in the restaurant I was going into. The police met with them and began looking for the suspect on the roads and the vehicle's registered address. (I got a good look at her, but doesn't mean she's the owner of the vehicle). The owners thanked us for reporting it and I wished them well.

Depending on if the owners simply decide to trade insurance information or press charges, I may or may not get called as a witness to court.

Ahh, what fun!

[Crossbow]

We had a hit and run a while back. SUV lost control on a rain slick turn and hit our car. Didn't even bother to make it look like she might stick around. I got a good look at her plate, and someone else tailed her for several miles while on the phone to the police, so they knew exactly where the owner lived.

Problem was, the owner was a guy, and we didn't get a good look at the driver, other than to know it was a woman. So no charges were pressed. We did get the owner's insurance to cover our damage, but that was like pulling teeth (and another story entirely).

I bet it'll be an insurance claim at best, unless someone can prove who was at the wheel. You might be asked to pick her out of a photo lineup (we tried- nothing definite). Maybe not...

[EvilEmpryss]

You're awesome for sticking around to make that report.

[bainsidhe]

It'll be an insurance thing if...

1) The vehicle was even insured
2) The plates weren't stolen.

I was hit by someone with #2. It happened two years ago and I still look for that plate number on passing cars. Just in case the jackass saved the stolen plate and stuck it on another vehicle.

[bhskittykatt]

I'm glad you took the time to report it. I came out of a movie once to find my passenger-side door smushed in. No note, no cameras, no witnesses.

Seems unlikely to me you'll be called as a witness. It will probably be insurance companies that hash things out. Hell, I've filled out witness statements for assaults where someone ended up going to jail and even I never ended up testifying in person, so for something like this I really doubt you'll have to go through that.

[registerrodeo]

A few weeks back I was waiting for my sister in front of the 3 letter pharmacy by my work. A women on a cell phone backed up (in a narrow parking lot) into the car behind her but across the lot. She pulled forward (the whole car rocked), opened her door and looked, saw me watching her, got back in the car and just drove away. As she had to wait for the light to turn onto the main road I was able to get the license plate, and car description. I went into 3 letter place and asked for the manager and handed him my receipt with the info and he found the owner. There was a nice dent in the bumper but she declined calling the cops as she was from out of state (can't remember her plates) and said she would just get it repaired because in her experience, morons who do this usually have no insurance.

[Reyneth]

Thanks for sticking around and getting info for the police.

I don't know about the law enforcement side of things, but I bet the victim's insurance will be calling you!

Having worked in claims resolution in which there aren't witnesses, or just anonymous notes, or people who provided info but didn't want to get involved further - it's really appreciated when someone who was at the right time, right place for our customer is willing to take some time to make sure things resolve the way they should.

Really hope that other driver had insurance. And if not, I hope you're in a state where she can to her driver's license until she pays the victim's insurance back for the repair cost.

[Geek King]

Let me also add my thanks for reporting the hit and run. My car was hit in the mall parking lot one year, hard enough that the headlight casing had to be bent back into place to get at the bulb to change it. No one reported a thing, despite it being the busy holiday season, so the money all came out of my pocket for it. Hopefully you saved the owners the anger and pain I went through by being a good person.

[XCashier]

I came out of a movie once to find my passenger-side door smushed in. No note, no cameras, no witnesses.

I sympathize. Same thing happened to my car during the last snowfall. My car was parked on the street outside our apartment. Woke up the next morning, went to get in, and saw the huge dent in the rear driver-side door. It happened in the middle of the night, and our apartment is too far away from the street to hear anything happening.

[Marmalady]

Something like that happened to me once. My ex and I had a car each, but there was only room in the drive for one, so on this particular evening it was my car (red) that was parked out on the road.

We were watching TV when a neighbour knocked on our door and said he'd seen a dark coloured hatchback, that had been visiting another house, reverse into the side of mine. The driver (female) had got out and looked at my car - so she knew she'd hit it - looked at hers, got back in and driven away. Our neighbour gave us what he thought was the registration number, but when we phoned the police, the number didn't come up on the computer. Drat.

Anyway, next day, ex comes back from work and notices a dark coloured hatchback parked outside another neighbour's house - on a sudden impulse he stopped and had a look around it, and there on a back corner was a sizeable scrape of red paint.... He looked at the registration and it was something like one letter different from what we'd been given. He got onto the police right away, and soon there was yet another visitor at that house, a uniformed one, who explained to the owner of the hatchback that it's not nice to damage someone else's property and pretend it wasn't you.

(She tried to say that she hadn't known she'd hit my car, until she was told there was a witness who'd seen her get out and look at what she'd done)

[BPFH]

Woke up the next morning, went to get in, and saw the huge dent in the rear driver-side door. It happened in the middle of the night, and our apartment is too far away from the street to hear anything happening.

Yeah, someone tried to get away with that sort of thing with my old car. I didn't hear the collision, which was fairly surprising because (a) I actually live fairly close to the road, and (b) the driver of the other car hit mine hard enough to move it 6 to 8 feet forward and put both the right-side wheels on top of the curb.

Unfortunately for him:

• My neighbors did hear the collision, and investigated, so there were witnesses.
• When he tried to run (somehow his car was still operable after that), he nearly hit one of the neighbors, so not only were there witnesses, there were ticked-off witnesses on the phone to the cops. I never had to call 'em.
• I said tried to run. He turned into the entrance to the trailer park across the street. It's the only entrance to the trailer park across the street, there's no other way in or out. Cop #1 went in after him, cop #2 parked near the entrance.

Of course, I did have to file a small-claims lawsuit to get his insurance information, but based on some of what was said by the cops, I suspect that a ticket for "failure to present proof of no-fault insurance" was the least of his concerns...

[SilverOrb]

I had my car parked on the street one night. Woke up to a huge dent. I had the old huge Cougar... I bet they took out half their front end.

Never did catch who did it. As long as they weren't drunk driving I wouldn't have really cared... Thing was a piece of crap.