In the wee early morning hours, one of my neighbors has an already totaled truck towed in front of my house on the opposite side of the street and parallel to one of our cars. Their house is perpendicular to mine, so all I can see is the backyard. The truck, sadly, already has some existing damage to the driver’s side despite being purchased in the past month from a dealer, based on the paper plate and expiration. Basically, it looks like someone else side-swiped it or it got T-boned by a smaller car. Or maybe [Neighbor] did the side-swiping based on… well… all of this…
Being an absolute idiot, relying solely on muscle memory, a few hours later, I turn wide to avoid my own car and accidentally hit the front driver-side headlight of said car. Despite my only going five miles an hour, part of the engine drops out due to the already compromised structural integrity and oil spills. My car gets out of it with a scuff mark and a small football-shaped dent above the tires.
Neighbors come out to see what the commotion is because it is, after all, a Saturday. This includes [Neighbor], the truck’s owner, who peers over his wall.
After fending off the crowd (of four) of nosy-noses, I park the car in our driveway and then go try and talk to [Neighbor], but he is already inside. No problem! I will ring the doorbell. He doesn’t answer.
He ends up getting in another car and driving away fifteen minutes later. Weird. But maybe he was late for something? So, I just leave a note telling him to visit me at my address for the insurance information, and I call my insurance to let them know there will be a claim. I also leave my car on the street in case [Neighbor] wants to take pictures of the damage.
A few hours later, [Neighbor] sends his teenage daughter to collect that information. We have probably a sixty-second conversation where I apologize and she walks off with my insurance card, which is questionable… No big deal. That one just expired a couple of days ago, and I have the new one. And well, my insurance is rocking, so if [Neighbor] tries something weird, I can count on them.
Two weeks pass before I hear from the insurance adjustor about the accident.
Once the claim is opened up, I provide all the pictures of his car and mine and the videos from my doorbell camera of the car being towed in and literally pushed off the tow truck and of the accident with a note explaining that yes, I hit this car, but there was already existing damage to it causing it to look like even more of a hot mess.
Immediately, the adjustor calls. She’s absolutely shocked to see that my car has such little damage compared to his and is somewhat relieved that I didn’t cause all the damage. She explains to me that they will most likely pay for the damage I caused over the whole thing and that I can use my deductible to get my damage fixed. She also explains that the truck is most likely totaled on [Neighbor]’s end, and she will call him back to inform him once she speaks to her boss.
This is my first accident in nearly fifteen years, and there is accident forgiveness, so I pay my deductible and get my car fixed with no issue. I don’t even need a rental car! [Neighbor] gets cash-back for my part of it and the owner retains a now salvaged title. All is well for me, other than the occasional stink eye from [Neighbor] over his wall, but who can blame him? I damaged his new (to him) car. The claim is closed.
Two more months pass.
The truck is still out front where it has been since [Neighbor] towed it. It has started to rust during monsoon season, the now-long-expired paper plate has disintegrated in the summer sun, and the parts underneath it have been swept away by the rain.
Someone else must’ve gotten sick of seeing the car; the city ends up coming out and issuing [Neighbor] a citation after taking a picture of the VIN and poking at the damage I caused. (Sorry!)
There’s more gawking by neighbors as they pass by the bright fluorescent tag for the next two days. It really feels like the whole neighborhood is out in full force, except for [Neighbor], reading his citation. (Thanks, doorbell camera, for all those useless notifications!)
And then, there is movement!
[Neighbor] decides to put up a simple printer paper sign: “$14,600 or best offer. You tow.”
That’s it. No contact information. Nothing.
That’s just what I assume is the remaining value on his loan; from experience, there is no way that car is worth more than $6,000 in that state. You cannot get into the driver’s side, the mirror is shattered, the headlight is toast, the engine is crunched, and the oil stump is somewhere in a gutter.
Whatever. I go about my own business while more gawkers gawk at the new sign. The most I do is actually move our car from the street into our driveway so it doesn’t get hit itself due to the neighborhood gossip.
Later that day, I am leaving for work in the original car I was trying not to hit when I see [Neighbor] standing staring out at his totaled car from his backyard. I pretend not to notice as I leave; maybe he needs a moment? The man lost his truck.
And then… Not five minutes after I leave, the sign is removed. Maybe he figured not having his contact information was not helpful?
Nope!
That evening, as I am getting the mail, I finally get the skinny from the neighborhood busybody. Apparently, [Neighbor] didn’t have car insurance when he drove it off the lot and immediately got into that accident. It was out of sheer luck for him that I hit his car and offered him an opening.
He ignored me so that I could just give him the insurance information without giving his or needing to take pictures of my damage (he could claim to the adjustor that I hid the car since it was in my garage), because he didn’t have any.
When I didn’t just leave it, he sent his daughter. And then he waited two weeks in hopes that I would just forget about it — in his words, “[My Name] is pregnant, and pregnant women are forgetful and cannot be trusted” — and the camera footage would be deleted. When that didn’t work, he got mad and took the salvaged title to try and force a “retaliation case” and make me call the city to have the car removed for abandonment.
He called the city to cite his own dang car when I didn’t do it, and then he put up that sign to try and get me to offer to pay off the loan out of the “goodness of my heart”, expecting me to see it when I drove by on my way to work that morning (which was why he was outside).
All without talking to me once!
I respect the long game on this strange, masterful play to attempt to save himself from financial ruin over a busted car, but Geebus!
