Hit and Runs...

[Blueface]

Originally Posted by mosesbotbol

You're crazy for no police report. Go after him and make his insurance pay. Tell him someone came by and identified his car. Call his bluff and get some dough out of him.

Moses, being on the claims side of insurance, I can tell you we would strongly defend this case if he were to present it to us, and we were that neighbor's carrier.
If an insured denies the event and if furthermore, there is absolutely no related damage to substantiate the claim (which is clearly evident here), we would honor the insured's version and let a judge decide for us or for you. Our duty in this matter would be to defend the insured as otherwise, with no physical evidence he did it, his rates would unjustifiably go up as result of us paying this claim.

If the damage was significant enough, which is not the case here, we would also hire a reconstruction expert that would testify to that affect, if he agreed that it is unrelated of course.

This neighbor's car did not cause that damage. That is not to say it didn't emanate from that driveway. Just not that car.

[mosesbotbol]

Originally Posted by Blueface

This neighbor's car did not cause that damage. That is not to say it didn't emanate from that driveway. Just not that car.

The hope is the neighbors will give up the car who really did this vs. going through the hassle of fighting it.

Are there street cameras in that neigborhood?

[Blueface]

Originally Posted by mosesbotbol

The hope is the neighbors will give up the car who really did this vs. going through the hassle of fighting it.

Are there street cameras in that neigborhood?

Agree.

I would ask the neighbors if they saw any vehicles in the area other than the two in that photo. A scene canvass can often turn up valuable information.

On a related note, I am trying to find my digital card reader so I can upload some interesting photos to illustrate the damage that can result to a bumper cover from just the slightest pressure against it.

My wife pulled into the garage with the BMW and just slightly pressed into an object that was there, that she misjudged. As a result of this, there is now a nice gauge on my front bumper cover.

Now imagine, that was from a slight impression, from slowly pulling in to the driveway, crawling at that point until the car came to rest. I assure you, my wife is very slow when pulling in the driveway as in front of that object she hit are two 40 gallon containers for my fish tank and the water heater. Imagine what would result from that cover, that has a metal reinforcement for support behind it, which would put pressure back out towards the point of action, that ends up striking and bending metal?

[Blueface]

Hopefully this serves to be purely for education of plastic bumper covers or as known in the industry, Fascia.
Think of the term Fascia and that alone should tell you the intent of these covers. They are nothing more than the final cosmetic finish for the car. They are not there to protect you and I assure you, if that is all you had, you would die in an accident.

The following photo illustrates what happens when your wife slowly rolls to a stop, not hitting an object, just simply putting pressure on it. The result is a gauge in the material. Granted, this is hardly any damage but that is precisely the point. Hardly any damage from merely applying pressure to an object that in turn left a lasting impression.

This is quite common in cities like NY where there is parallel parking. Cars have license plates with screws to hold them protruding. As folks try to leave tight parking spaces, they bang into the cars in front. While not causing major damage, these lasting impressions in the material occur.



Here is the area that she stopped that I have now removed the offender.



So, that all said, again, now imagine what would result to molded plastic when it is compressed with great force up against steel? What exactly can't be predicted in detail but we know one thing for sure, it would be significantly greater than what is on that neighbor's car.

Hope this comparison assisted.

[shark]

Sucks that you can't prove who did it. People can be such totally spineless a-holes.


I was following some guy in a F-150 one day down a residential street. We passed by some parked cars but he didn't judge the distance very well and ended up tasking off one of the parked vehicle's outside mirrors. He kept on going like nothing happened, so I kept following him until we got to a main highway. He turned abruptly into an alley running parallel to the main highway and I stayed with him; he obviously realized that I was following him. He turned into a parking lot and I pulled up behind him, got his plate number, and got out of there in case he decided to come after me and do something (road rage). I went back to the house where the collision occurred. The owner was there looking at his car and he recognized my car, so I parked and gave him the plate number, make model, and a good description of the driver. Too bad back then there were no cell phone cameras (this was probably a good 12 years ago).