Chicagoland Sportbike Forums banner

Bad luck with people hitting my cars continues...

1K views 40 replies 20 participants last post by  Chills 
#1 ·
Dammit, I've had some crappy luck with people hitting my cars.

In December 2005 Mo (my fiance) and I were rear-ended in my Xterra. We were sitting in an emergency area on I-88 for 2 hours waiting for a tow truck when we got hit.

Fast forward to December 2006. Mo and I were rear-ended in my Porsche in Naperville. The lawsuit for this one will hopefully be over soon.

Fast forward again to today. I parked on the street adjacent to my office. I go out there a few hours later and I see a car wedging itself in between my car and a Caddy (all parallel parked). The front of this car was wedged against the back of my Hyundai. I whipped out the cell phone and started taking pics. After plenty of pictures of the cars touching and the licence plates of the cars I pulled my car forward a few inches to inspect the damage. She scratched up the back bumper. It's not horrible, but it is scratched. I took more photos.

I talked to a cop nearby and he said I'd have to go to the station on State street to file a report. Great. So I waited downstairs in my car for the driver of the car to appear. 45 minutes of waiting and she came out. I calmly told her what happened and she denied it (of course #1.) I showed her pictures and she tried to deny it again. I then just asked for her insurance information. She went into her car to look for it then came out and said she doesn't have insurance (of course #2.) I wrote her name down and before I could get her contact info she walked off. She works in this building at Corner Bakery, so I'm sure I can find her.

Let me ask everyone: Is it worth going after her to get my car fixed?

1. The Hyundai is 5 years old, paid for, and my daily driver. It has close to 90k miles on it and already has quite a few scratches from normal use and other careless drivers. The scratches are on the plastic bumper, so nothing will rust.

2. She doesn't have insurance. That means I'm going to have to take her to court most likely to get any money from her. I could use my insurance company, but I'm just about finished with the whole Porsche thing and I don't want to go through it again. Besides, it'll probably cost less than my deductible to fix the car.

3. If I do go after her will I ever get any money? Not to sound crass but she works at Corner Bakery and doesn't have insurance. I'm guessing she doesn't have a whole lot of money or savings.


Opinions???
 
See less See more
#2 ·
IMHO, not worth the problems. Especially the missed work time.

If it were the Porsche, I'd be all over it.

Keep it mind, if she doesn't have insurance, then she's probably not financially responsable in general, and you'd be milking a rock.

Live and move on. Protect the Porsche
 
#4 ·
Hey Criminalgrrl, the Porsche accident is where I met Muskrat. He was the officer who responded. :)


Raven, I am inclined to agree. Milking a rock is an apt comparison.
 
#5 ·
If you do nothing, she'll keep on driving with no insurance and possibly do something worse down the road (pun intended).

I'm the kind of person that would have overlooked it if she would was apologetic and took responsibility for what she did. The way she acted just would have made me said, "F-you, I'm standing right here and calling the police so you can tell them you have no insurance. I'll see you in court." Too many people take no accountability for their actions.
 
#8 ·
That is another good point.

Back when I first moved out on my own, I was driving home from dropping off some tapes at block buster (pre-DVD era) and I saw a car in a ditch off the side of the road.

Not just in a ditch, but backwards, upside-down, headlights pointing into the air, and underwater!

I pulled over, jumped into the gas filled water and pulled this *really* drunk guy out...he was having trouble figuring out which way was up. I kept asking if there was anyone else in the car who I needed to get...and his blurry answers are what told me he was drunk. When I told him I was going to call for help he tried to push past me and take my pickup truck which was sitting wide open with the keys in the ignition. Again, he was so drunk I just stepped aside and he fell over.

I jumped into the truck, drove back to the shell station down the road and called 911, got passed around from town to town for 5 minutes and eventually got help.

The police showed up, I pulled up and said I was the one that pulled him out and offered up any information I could. They totally treated me like shit, made me sit in the back of a squad, freezing and smelling of gas, and didn't let me go for another hour.

I was seriously going to blow off the court date after how I was treated, but I kept telling myself "what if this dude hits and kills someone next DUI because I was too lazy or my feelings got hurt by some asshole cops" (no offence to the cops here, just how I was treated then after saving someones life).

I went to court, and the judge listened to what I said, thanked me, said I did a good thing and I was a good person and let me go.

Granted...this is a big difference from simply not having insurance...but Zero has a good point. What if she hits someone and causes some real damage and doesn't have insurance to cover that persons injuries.

Maybe call the cops and ask them what they recommend.
 
#6 ·
Probably not worth the hassle to go after her at this point.

I've had really bad luck with my car. I had it 2 days and a semi tire blew up and killed the fender. Then it got blasted in the front by a girl at a gas station. Last week I caught a nail in the sidewall of a tire, nobody had stock replacements and I didn't want a mismatch so I had to get 2. The shop that did the tires then gouged the shit out of both rear rims, I'm still waiting for that to get fixed.
 
#10 ·
Again, all she would have had to say to me is something like, "Oh wow, I'm so sorry. I was in a hurry and honestly didn't notice I scraped your car." Even if she was lying and was hoping she'd get away with it, at least she owned up to it.

I know you just went through a huge hassle, but I just hate people like that. Sometimes I don't want to wait for karma to catch up with them. It's not necessarily about getting money from her, let the legal system do what they will with her. If not, she just got away with screwing you over- even if you're not super pissed about it.
 
#11 ·
Zero, you do have a good point. Maybe I should call the cops back and see what they say since she doesn't have insurance. At least I could give them her license plate and her name.

She shouldn't get away with this, true, but what a huge hassle it'll be to not only get the car fixed up but to get her to pay for it. :(
 
#12 ·
Maybe you can report her but not press charges? It is a weird situation. I'd say report it and hope the police verifies her lack of insurance then let them do whatever they do in that situation. I wouldn't think you'd have to make a court appearance for her lack of insurance.

Tell them something like she hit your car, you confronted her, she denied hitting your car after presented with evidence that she did and claimed she didn't have insurance. Then tell them you aren't worried about your car, but didn't know if that had to be reported or not.

At best, she'll know she didn't get away with something. At worse, she'll get away with it.
 
#13 ·
Just talked to the station desk for this area and he said all they can do is file a report. I have to go down there to make a statement and bring the information I have. He said they'll run the plates and see what they come up with. Shit, the pics look like her registration expires this month (of course #3).

Didn't sound like they would/could really do anything.

BTW, this occurred on Madison in the Loop.
 
#14 ·
I'd say go after her becasue its obvious if she parks like this alot, i assure you this isnt the first car shes hit just to park. Its not even a matter of getting the car fixed. At this point it falls under principal.

The back bumper on my car is already effed up from everybody downtown tapping it. Hense the reason i have a spiked license plafe frame on my front. Hard metal spikes, meet opposing bumper...Still wish i could find a way to get one on the rear.
 
#16 ·
I would do something about her not having insurance. The beater Hyundai can have another scratch, but get her off the road w/o insurance. I got t-boned 2 years ago by a drunk w/o insurance, totalling the brand new car I had bought 4 DAYS prior. It was a huge pain in the ass. I have no sympathy for people driving w/o insurance.

She could have been lying just so she didn't have to give the info to you though...
 
#17 ·
She could have been lying just so she didn't have to give the info to you though...
That's a good point. She was rooting around in her car then came up and said she doesn't have insurance. She might have just said f*ck it and wouldn't give me her info.

Do you really think the CPD will do anything about her not having insurance?
 
#18 ·
Unbelievable how little cops can do in this situation... one can only hope that's because they are out there fighting real crime :laughing

If it was me, I'd try to get her in trouble for not having insurance. But since that doesn't seem to be feasable, I'd let out all the air out of all 4 tires. I wouldn't destroy anything, but give her at least a headache :evil
 
#28 ·
Unbelievable how little cops can do in this situation... one can only hope that's because they are out there fighting real crime :laughing

I'm not surprised one bit....no revenue for them to collect....the only time they fight crime is when they actually stumble across one happening.....sorry I'm pretty sour on the usefullness of any LE agency in the past 3 years.

Chris....thats why you own a beater or "downtown" car...get her to cough up a couple of hundred in cash....let it go at that. When I was living in Toronto...I bought a 1972 Dodge Corenet...Fire Engine Red, for $300 Canadian...it was the Fire Chief's ride. I loved that thing....I didn't care who hit it. In one year I collected over $1200 for people dinging me.
 
#24 ·
:lmao: That reminds me of that scene from Walking Tall with the Rock.



The Rock "You need to get your tail lights fixed"

Guy in Porsche "What's wrong with my tail lights"

Smack, Smack !!! (5 ft 4 X 4 smashing his lights).

The Rock "They're broken"
 
#22 ·
Remove her valve stems and leave the caps slightly on so the tires slowly lose air, no way she will figure out what is wrong with her tires. After a long day of work, she will come out to see four flat tires in her completely wedged, bump parking spot :jester.


Seriously, I wouldn't do anything. It is not worth the hassle, trouble, time, and money to go to small claims court and get those damages. I would say maybe just try to get her a ticket for no insurance as those fines are big now, and call it a day. Like Raven said, if it were the Porche, Do IT DO IT, but for the other car, not worth it. When I had the 90 Bonneville I said to myself if any one hit my car, they would get a free pass. I would simply grab my belongings in the car, shake their hand, wish them look, and call someone for a ride home, and let the car die where it was hit :lmao:
 
  • Like
Reactions: Chills
#26 ·
to me it doens't sound like the hassle that will be involved, try to do something about her no insurance, but if she does have insurance it won't go any farther anyway. I'm mor eup for letting the air out of her tires, no damage done just a real pain in the ass situation.
 
#27 ·
Sorry to hear man. I know your pain. Every single ding/scratch on my car yas caused by someone other than myself. Just another indication that most people just don't give a f about anyone other than themselves.
I would not bother with going to court, unless it was absolutely necessary to do so in order for her to be issued a ticket for not having insurance. Based on your conversation with the police, it sounds like they are not willing/can't write her the ticket; that would piss me off more than the incident itself.
GL
 
#30 ·
I went down to Cornery Bakery after work, yesterday, to talk to her and see if we could work something out.

Apparently she doesn't work there. I thought her name tag had the CB chef symbol, but I was wrong. There are a shitload of fastfood places that she could work at here so I guess I'm SOL for tracking her down unless I go to the police station and file a report. Even then they have to use her license plate to get the address, and who knows if she's got current registration and the right address.

It's too bad because the 3 different officers I talked to didn't seem interested in doing anything. They were polite to me, but since there were no injuries and the cars are driveable it wasn't really a priority... even if she doesn't have insurance.

Its too bad because even though this car is my daily driver it is still in great shape.

No, Arch, she was NOT cute.

It was a dark grey Ford Taurus, IL 982 9005.

I'll try to get the pics from the phone onto my laptop.
 
#32 ·
if she refused to exchange info, or info wasn't sufficient ie: contact you might be able to have her charged w/ hit and run too. She is required to do so....
625 ILCS 5/11-403-DUTY TO GIVE INFORMATION AND RENDER AID
Any person failing to comply with this Section shall be guilty of a Class A misdemeanor.
 
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Top