I went this morning to the parking lot (reserved for our apartment only) and found a foot long dent. The car was parked such that only an car belonging to the tenants could have done it (and that too while reversing).

So I find such a car with red paint smeared across the rear bumper and I have grey paint smeared across my dent (its a grey car that hit me). So I am wondering if I leave a note for the guy and see if he owns up or call the police and record this officially ?? (before he changes his bumpers or something).

I have taken all pictures and paint samples off my car.

Please advise.

Note that the culprit car fender (where it hit doesnt look bright red because my paint did not rub off onto his car - however it appears pink to the eye - the pic is not that great when showing pink)

Thanks,
Bodi

 

Do both. I'm not sure what relevance this has to the Police (in the UK they'd just laugh at you), but reporting it officially, taking more pictures (do the white balance on your camera beforehand to see if it will pick up the pink better), record all the details of the offending car, and leave a note.

Could be someone who is an *******, could be they didn't notice, could be they did buy thought they could get away with it, but will be okay and shameful when confronted. Either way, looks like they messed up the rear door pretty bad and I'd be after them for it.

 

Measure the height of the dent and compare with their bumper dimensions.

 

I would report it to the police. Granted it is a private lot, it is still illegal to leave the scene of an accident (didn't tell you he did it or report it, ignored it). You can't cause damage to someone's property and say "Oh well. Private property." I don't see how something happening on private property absolves someone from the criminal responsibility or how you can't call the police about it. That would mean that if somebody vandalized your car there is no point in calling the police if it's on private property, including your own driveway at home. So if your car is stolen from this "private lot" does that mean it's not a criminal matter because it happened on private property??? Maybe I'm stupid here, but I see absolutely no reason why you shouldn't call the police and report it. Especially since some insurance companies require a police report as part of a claim such as your situation.

 

So I reportes the accident .. I also measure the height of the main scratch mark (there are several on my car) with the suspect bumper and the heights seem to match.

I am still waiting for the cops to arrive. In fact its taking them so long, I even managed to clean out my interior, vacuum, wipe everything down inside

Thanks for the feedback and the sympathies.

Bodi

 

kick that **** out of his car, and leave a note saying " NOW WE EVEN *******"...

HEHE


Evil

 

I dont know for sure if its his car. Otherwise I wouldnt mind doing that.

Looking at the bumper - the suspect car does not seem to have much damage compared to my car. Yet the heights match and the color of his bumper is on my car.

In any case - one good thing is that I am sure its one of the cars belonging to the tenants. We have only about 10-12 cars and it shouldnt be hard to track down a grey car with its bumper screwed up.

Just waiting till night fall when everybody rolls in and also waiting for the cops.

Bodi

 

I think that the suspect car didn't get quite as much damage because he hit you with the corner of the bumper while the impact on your car was on the broad side....so you'd have less resistance to impact in such a bump.

 

well the cops came around and asked the owner of that car whether he hit me or not. He said that was damage from some other time when he hit the guard rail and he didnt have a police report to back it up. He denied hitting my car.

It seems a bit suspicious but I guess thats how it is. I will be checking with all the tenants and bugging everybody to death until I get some information out.

Bodi

 

The car in the picture didn't hit your car. The exchange of paint doesn't appear to math. I would look for someone with damage to their right front bumper.

 

The Camry guy could have backed up into his car. It is very hard to tell just by those two pictures.

bd - you should take as many pictures of possible first. Even try to park close to see if it is the right dimensions like right behind him. Gather the evidence and talk to the Camry owner. Or call the cops/insurance. Either way, keep us updated.

 

Some more pictures to clear things up. I have attached a parking lot diagram. The red rectangle is my car and the grey car is the suspect car. People can only back out from those spots, unless they drive into the parking lot in reverse - which I have not seen so far. Theres not enough room to go into reverse in the lot - because space is very limited.

Some more pics are also attached in case you guys can tell from the damage whether it was caused by the guard-rail or whether the damage seems to match the one on the rx-8.

<edit> The main scratch on my 8 matched within 1" with the suspect car (this can also be coincidence since the guard rail is also prolly at the same height. Also note that the parking lot is far from smooth - so there could be minor variations depending on where the car was sitting. In order to really check I would have to put both cars in the same spot and measure. </edit>

Bodi

 

heres the parking lot diagram ..

 

Well, judging from where the two cars are sitting, I'd say it's a good bet that he hit you. What are the odds that there is a gray car with a scraped bumper on the correct side to have hit you sitting in just the right spot to have backed into you, and appearing to match the same color of paint left on your car? It is really his word against yours at this point but it appears "more likely than not" that he did it, which would be enough to win in small claims if you wanted to go after your deductible.

 

one correction - the grey car in the diagram is the car that I am guessing did the damage backing up. Its not the grey car in the photo however. The grey car in the photo was gone when I discovered the dent and he came back and parked somewhere else. I do not know where the grey toyota was parked originally.

If I could only take a paint sample .. could establish some proof. Wonder if there is a way of doing that without affecting the paint (with owners permission ofcourse). I have scraped off the other car's paint off my car and put it in an envelope.

Before that I am waiting for the responses from the tenants about whether they saw the incident.

Bodi

 

Okay. I thought that's where the gray car was all along. I don't know how to get a paint sample withouht affecting the car unless you could get one from his already scraped up area (what's a little more?).

 

Well it may be too late for this, but if it were me, I would confront the owner of the scratched car and drill him with questions. I would start with a simple "did you hit my car while backing out?" and if he/she confesses then you go from there.....but if he/she denies it and goes with the guardrail excuse then ask them where they hit the guardrail and when that happened. If they did indeed hit a guardrail then they should have no trouble recalling such information. Maybe this helps, maybe it doesn't. Just my $0.02.

 

You need to find out whoever it was. That is a big *** dent. That's no scratch. Make sure that you get them to pay for it. That's a lot of $$$ worth of body work. Good luck in your search!

 

That rear door is aluminum which is likely why the damage is so great (in combination with the corner of his bumper hitting your broad side)

I'm not sure how they'll fix the aluminum, body shop methods are quite different. I'm not sure what spec aluminum Mazda uses, but due to fatigue in that material you may end up needing a new rear door. Whatever you do, get a few opinions on that topic from reputable body shops.

Are there any camera's in your parking lot area?

 

Yeah this might take some major bucks to repair depending on how easy it is to get behind that panel. I have a $1000 deductible too

I have sent a note to all the apartment members asking if they saw anything or if they caused the incident, to own up.

When the rental office opens on Monday, I am going to get a list of all the car plates that are registered with the apartment block (we need to register to park there) and then see which car plate is not parking at the lot anymore. And if anyone of them is a grey car - bingo. Otherwise I am going to have to grill suspect number 1. He did say he had a witness and he should not object to me taking paint samples from his car's scratched bumper if he is innocent.

Bodi

 

I don't think the car pictured has anything to do with it. I'm thinking about the angle required to get that dent, the force, and the nature of the scratches on his car.

I mean, I could be wrong, but I certainly don't think there is enough evidence there to go all out on this guy at all.

 

Not that this helps any... even more so giving your complexes parking arrangement, but when I park my 8 in a public style parking lot I park with caution in mind.
I park near medians as close as possible to it to leave ample room for the nnext space. I park further out where the lazy fvcks who have no respect will not park.
I would never park in 45 degree situation like your complex has. That is just asking for broad sides, which as you know now can cause MAJOR damage.
With all that useless babble being said... My suggestion would be to request designated parking slots per apt number. Request that you get a end slot near the curb or median. I would hope that givin your current situation, the apt. management would desire to assist in making sure this does not happen again. If designated slots were allocated then for sure any damage caused on their property would be much easier to rule-out based on owners parking locations.
2 weeks of ownership and then this... I feel for ya.

 

You are remarkably composed and level headed about this. I applaud you.

I think its quite obvious what happen, that your assumptions are very reasonable.


Ps. I'd snap for sure!

 

I dont think the damage on your car matches up with the toyota. Just look at the height of your damage. It looks like its 8 inches of paint transfer yet the toyota only has a 3 in high mark. I think that your deductible is way too high. You should look into getting that changed. I would be careful harrassing neighbors with questions, someone might just key your car to be ****** after this situation. Good luck and I hope the body shop does a nice job.

 

Yeah I was asking for a broad-side hit - but the thing is I returned at 1 am on friday night and I had a choice of parking on the streets or parking inside.

Unfortunately I believe they have more cars than parking slots - but its a good idea and I am going to bring it up. Or something else like surveillance cameras.

Its just a waiting game for now - wait for information or the culprit car to show up. I am sure the culprit is parking some distance away from the apartment lot and walking/hitching a ride back home. Or he/she has gone away for the weekend and will return Sunday night/Monday. In any case, once I have a list of all the tenants' car plates, I can find out who is missing from the lot

I'll keep you guys posted. Thanks for the support.

Bodi