Help/advice with a hit and run

[Evv3]

Last Sunday morning I took a sports car out for a coffee and a drive. The coffee shop lot is tight so I pull up to the neighboring business that is closed and park in one of the front spots. I ran into a friend and ended up chatting there for about 30 minutes. I head back to the car and see it has been hit on the driver's side.

From this point I start canvassing for cameras. I was able to get in touch with the building owner where my car was parked, who reviewed footage and found a truck that hit my car. Unfortunately, the truck pulled straight in off the road and backed all the way out to the road after hitting me. He had no front plate, and is way too far away to make out anything by the time his rear plate comes into view. He is however in a somewhat limited/recognizable newer truck. I have a few stills from video of the guy entering his truck as well but they are grainy when enlarged. The police were called and a report was made, but that was all as the car was parked in a lot and no injuries.

Now I know I can put this through my insurance, but I'm taking it a bit personal this time and feel the guy needs to be held financially accountable with the claim through his insurer. This is the third time someone has hit me and ran in the last 2 years in the area. Mind you I have a small collection of cars and am cautious about where I park them. It's almost as if you can't make it up at this point.

Any advice would be helpful. Many of you here are much smarter than I and I'm open to suggestions. I feel like I'm so close to identifying him, yet have now hit a wall. I have spent a lot of time combing security footage in the area, calling dealers/auto body shops, reaching out to local car groups etc with little luck.

*It is worth noting that the guy who hit me went into the shop and bought a coffee. Go figure their cameras don't work. After speaking with the owner, we believe to have identified his transaction. Pulling up the transaction details with Square shows the last four digits of the Amex used, but does not provide a name or phone number as it sometimes does.

Thanks for taking the time to read this and for any input.

Best,
Evan

[dmash]

Originally Posted by Evv3

Any advice would be helpful. Many of you here are much smarter than I and I'm open to suggestions. I feel like I'm so close to identifying him, yet have now hit a wall. I have spent a lot of time combing security footage in the area, calling dealers/auto body shops, reaching out to local car groups etc with little luck.

*It is worth noting that the guy who hit me went into the shop and bought a coffee. Go figure their cameras don't work. After speaking with the owner, we believe to have identified his transaction. Pulling up the transaction details with Square shows the last four digits of the Amex used, but does not provide a name or phone number as it sometimes does.

Thanks for taking the time to read this and for any input.

Best,
Evan

you've honestly already showcased that you've done everything and exhausted every option. there's really nothing else to do, except hope somebody buzzes you saying they found the truck. I feel you're looking for something that's not really there, and unfortunately know you've hit a dead end at the moment.

also in regards to financial transactions, you're not going to be able to pull his info based on what transpired. that's wildly illegal when we're discussing a civil matter and not something criminal in nature, which the police would be handling anyhow (such as, a hit and run dealing with an injured person). as let's be honest, it could easily be argued that a parking lot mishap, he wasn't even aware it happened. if there's not major damage, it's entirely plausible this is the case. It wouldn't be treated as a hit and run as you're describing, such as on the highway.

also, that's actually pushing the envelope that this business owner forked over the last 4 of another patron's cc. I'm pretty sure that if his name/actual card number had populated with that, this hit and run driver could sue that business owner quite easily. have no idea what he's thinking showing you that sensitive information, that's completely different than video footage.

[AzPaul]

This is easy for me to say because it's not my car or my likely to increase insurance rates, but I'd simply let insurance handle it. You don't want to go all Captain Ahab over this. It's just not worth the agita.

[MrGoat]

Blast what stills you have from camera footage on all social media platforms. Someone will recognize them.


Sent from my Apple privacy invasion product

[Evv3]

Thanks for the replies. The car he hit is a Porsche 911 and the damage isn't absurd but also not small. I'd ballpark it around 10k. He is also very aware of what he did. He cuts his wheel hard and slams into the side pulling out. He is at such an angle that he cannot continue. He has to straighten out and pull forward, then reverse again straight out.

Also, to be clear the officer was with me when the owner looked into the transaction details. He did not share the last four of the Amex, but simply said that is all that shows up on his end.

I was thinking about going the social media route and giving it a few days before submitting the claim to my insurance. I've notified them of the situation and that I will be submitting the claim shortly if I cannot find his info.

[ltmgeller]

I think the social media route is the best way to go

[brandrea]

Originally Posted by AzPaul

This is easy for me to say because it's not my car or my likely to increase insurance rates, but I'd simply let insurance handle it. You don't want to go all Captain Ahab over this. It's just not worth the agita.

This.

[kieselguhr]

The frustration is palpable from your story. To many of us, it’s all too familiar (I know it is for me). As has been said already, it’s not worth your time and effort to make it personal. Have insurance handle it and forgive. You’ll feel better for it.

[huncho]

parking in public these days always gives me a ton of anxiety, especially in tight lots. so many things can go wrong with people opening doors or hitting you because they suck at parking and you're in the dark about all of it. sucks that you tried to avoid the tight lot and got punished for it anyway. hopefully you get it all straightened out

[JasoninDenver]

Do you really want to track down a POS who may or may not be a psycho in addition to be an asshole?

For me, this is why I have insurance in the first place.

[donas]

The only thing I have to add is to contact the investigating officer and stay on him. Every department that I know of has officers within the traffic division whose sole job is to work hit and runs. This does not mean that is who responded, but the report will make its way to them. It's kinda the squeaky wheel gets the oil type thing. Keep a record of when you contacted the officer and what you provided them. If you don't get results, start working your way up their chain of command. Sooner or later you will get to the right person; trust me, in my twenty years of law enforcement I've been on the ass end and the boot end!

[330ci]

Given the current climate towards the wealthy in this country, I'd let insurance handle it.

You're more likely to become a meme, with your Porsche plastered all over social media with people laughing about the $10k in damage caused to your car; than to find sympathy.

[THC]

Originally Posted by 330ci

Given the current climate towards the wealthy in this country, I'd let insurance handle it.

You're more likely to become a meme, with your Porsche plastered all over social media with people laughing about the $10k in damage caused to your car; than to find sympathy.

Sad but true

[fmc000]

Originally Posted by 330ci

Given the current climate towards the wealthy in this country, I'd let insurance handle it.

You're more likely to become a meme, with your Porsche plastered all over social media with people laughing about the $10k in damage caused to your car; than to find sympathy.

Wow, is the US this shit nowadays?

[brandrea]

Originally Posted by JasoninDenver

Do you really want to track down a POS who may or may not be a psycho in addition to be an asshole?

For me, this is why I have insurance in the first place.

And this Sad but (may be) true

[Speedbird-1]

Is this not, a police issue?

[Widows Son]

Originally Posted by Speedbird-1

Is this not, a police issue?

It's only criminal if the police can prove the truck driver was aware that he hit the car. If not, it's civil. If the person gets out of their car and looks at the damage, he obviously knew what happened. Then, he has an obligation to leave a note on the car or contact the police. In Ohio they have 24 hours to report the accident.

[donas]

Originally Posted by Widows Son

It's only criminal if the police can prove the truck driver was aware that he hit the car. If not, it's civil. If the person gets out of their car and looks at the damage, he obviously knew what happened. Then, he has an obligation to leave a note on the car or contact the police. In Ohio they have 24 hours to report the accident.

It's criminal in some locations no matter what. You cause damage and leave the scene is prima facie evidence of hit and run unless the suspect can make a legit claim he feared for his safety and was going to a safe location to report the incident.

[TK-710]

Originally Posted by Speedbird-1

Is this not, a police issue?

Yes. Leaving the scene of a property damage MVA is a police issue. However it is a traffic infraction (violation) since there were no injuries. If you leave the scene of a personal injury accident that’s a misdemeanor which in my state is a crime. Most property damage hit and runs go unsolved because there’s nothing to go on. That said there’s plenty to go on here and with the proper steps taken it could be easily solved IF the other driver is local. With this much information this would actually be a great case to work bc you finally have a chance to catch one. That said depending on the size of the PD, and their case load, this case may not get triaged as a high priority. Staffing shortages in most areas are having a huge impact on exactly this type of incident. The truth is even if located and ticketed the restitution is a civil matter, which most likely will be handled by the insurance company. The fine paid on the ticket doesn’t even go to the victim.

[BNA/LION]

Sorry to hear this. The chances of getting anything from the truck driver in this unfortunate situation are slim. Get with insurance company, pay deductible, fix it and move on. KARMA is a Biotch and the driver will get what they have coming eventually.

[Speedbird-1]

Thank you.
Interesting, related article in today's Telegraph.



‘Hit and run Range Rover bump will add 50pc to my insurance’
AA Insurance rescinded a cheaper renewal quote after the incident


Dear Katie, (the motoring "expert")

I parked my car next to Wimbledon Common and returned to find a note under my windscreen wiper from two good Samaritans. They had witnessed a woman driving a black Range Rover Sport hitting my car and driving off without attempting to make contact with me to confess.

To borrow their words, it was the slowest hit and run they had ever seen. They kindly provided me with a detailed account and photos of the damage and the offending car, including the number plate.

I reported the incident to my insurer, the AA, and it asked me to file a police report for my insurance because, since the woman had driven off without leaving details, she had committed a crime.

I gladly did so, but when it came to actually tracking down this individual the police have been utterly useless. A friend of mine who runs a garage has estimated that the damage will come in at £500 to £1,000 to repair, which is relatively small fry for the AA.

The problem is that my AA insurance policy expires at the end of this month, which has turned out to be the worst timing possible.

Before this all happened the AA had sent me an offer for renewal at £1,354 a year, but the day after I reported the hit and run incident to it the offer shot up by £763 to £2,117. This is apparently due to the increased risk for the AA of insuring my car.

But what risk? I was not there when the incident occurred and I was certainly not at fault. Had I been parked at home I could have understood a rise in premium if my road was therefore deemed a “riskier” location.

But that wasn’t the case. The scale of the increase in premium is so significant that I would actually be better off just paying to get the damage fixed. It leaves me wondering what the point of this insurance is. I would love it if you could lift the bonnet on the AA’s formula for raising premiums, because it feels so unfair to me.



Dear reader,

This unfortunate “hit and run” incident occurred at the worst possible moment insofar as your insurance was concerned.

While the crash, which was deemed to have been a crime, was being investigated, the AA wasn’t yet able to confirm that you weren’t at fault. This, it says, was because it didn’t have the necessary information to prove who did what.

As the days went on and the case remained unresolved, your policy was on the brink of expiry, leaving you in a stressful catch‑22 situation.

You were faced with a choice between two unpalatable options: pay an extra £763 to insure your car for a year even though you had done nothing wrong, or let your motor insurance expire and take your car off the road in the meantime. In the end the policy lapsed and you took it off the road, which was inconvenient.

I asked the AA to urgently address the situation you found yourself in through no fault of your own. How could it be right or fair that you should have to saddle the burden of a 50pc premium rise just because you were unlucky enough to have this woman run into your car at around the same time your annual insurance was expiring? It seemed outrageous to me.

Then the AA came back and said it had made a mistake. It said it should have been explained to you that, had you accepted the new premium and then subsequently been deemed to be officially “not at fault” in this incident, the additional premium would have been refunded to you, leaving you no worse off than if the incident had not occurred.

However, because of “training issues”, this didn’t happen, resulting in you being, quite understandably, up in arms. An AA Insurance spokesman said: “We can confirm the customer should not be out of pocket at renewal due to the insurance claim. Because the claim has not been acknowledged by the third party, the revised renewal premium reflects an ongoing claim (where there is no third party to recover any outlay, the customer’s insurer will have to repair the damage).

“However, once and if the third party accepts liability and the insurer can make a recovery of their outlay, the premium is recalculated back to the renewal date and the difference is refunded back to the policyholder.

“This is standard practice within the industry, but the position should be explained clearly to the policyholder. We apologise for not making this clear at the time. It’s unfortunate that this incident occurred at the point of renewal, as a mid-term claim would have given more time to settle before renewal, potentially reducing the financial impact.”

Although this gave you some comfort in knowing you would receive a partial refund for the premium, you were still miffed at the temporarily higher premium.

But then, right at the last minute, the AA said it did in fact have sufficient evidence you were not at fault and agreed to charge you an amount similar to the original renewal quote you received. You have accepted this and are glad to have this fiasco behind you.

Given the stress this episode caused, I wonder whether you might consider protecting yourself by installing a dash cam in future and setting it to “parking mode”, so you can record any incidents that might occur? It may be worth a look. Good luck.
<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<
Not sure I see the point of the last paragraph.
The 'victim' had all the info'....but to no avail.

[White Collar Boy]

Sorry to read this, Evan. I think it would be prudent to resist posting about it on other social media, which might expose you to nasty people, including the driver. I hope your luck in not getting banged into improves.

[MrGoat]

Originally Posted by Speedbird-1

Thank you.
Interesting, related article in today's Telegraph.



‘Hit and run Range Rover bump will add 50pc to my insurance’
AA Insurance rescinded a cheaper renewal quote after the incident


Dear Katie, (the motoring "expert")

I parked my car next to Wimbledon Common and returned to find a note under my windscreen wiper from two good Samaritans. They had witnessed a woman driving a black Range Rover Sport hitting my car and driving off without attempting to make contact with me to confess.

To borrow their words, it was the slowest hit and run they had ever seen. They kindly provided me with a detailed account and photos of the damage and the offending car, including the number plate.

I reported the incident to my insurer, the AA, and it asked me to file a police report for my insurance because, since the woman had driven off without leaving details, she had committed a crime.

I gladly did so, but when it came to actually tracking down this individual the police have been utterly useless. A friend of mine who runs a garage has estimated that the damage will come in at £500 to £1,000 to repair, which is relatively small fry for the AA.

The problem is that my AA insurance policy expires at the end of this month, which has turned out to be the worst timing possible.

Before this all happened the AA had sent me an offer for renewal at £1,354 a year, but the day after I reported the hit and run incident to it the offer shot up by £763 to £2,117. This is apparently due to the increased risk for the AA of insuring my car.

But what risk? I was not there when the incident occurred and I was certainly not at fault. Had I been parked at home I could have understood a rise in premium if my road was therefore deemed a “riskier” location.

But that wasn’t the case. The scale of the increase in premium is so significant that I would actually be better off just paying to get the damage fixed. It leaves me wondering what the point of this insurance is. I would love it if you could lift the bonnet on the AA’s formula for raising premiums, because it feels so unfair to me.



Dear reader,

This unfortunate “hit and run” incident occurred at the worst possible moment insofar as your insurance was concerned.

While the crash, which was deemed to have been a crime, was being investigated, the AA wasn’t yet able to confirm that you weren’t at fault. This, it says, was because it didn’t have the necessary information to prove who did what.

As the days went on and the case remained unresolved, your policy was on the brink of expiry, leaving you in a stressful catch‑22 situation.

You were faced with a choice between two unpalatable options: pay an extra £763 to insure your car for a year even though you had done nothing wrong, or let your motor insurance expire and take your car off the road in the meantime. In the end the policy lapsed and you took it off the road, which was inconvenient.

I asked the AA to urgently address the situation you found yourself in through no fault of your own. How could it be right or fair that you should have to saddle the burden of a 50pc premium rise just because you were unlucky enough to have this woman run into your car at around the same time your annual insurance was expiring? It seemed outrageous to me.

Then the AA came back and said it had made a mistake. It said it should have been explained to you that, had you accepted the new premium and then subsequently been deemed to be officially “not at fault” in this incident, the additional premium would have been refunded to you, leaving you no worse off than if the incident had not occurred.

However, because of “training issues”, this didn’t happen, resulting in you being, quite understandably, up in arms. An AA Insurance spokesman said: “We can confirm the customer should not be out of pocket at renewal due to the insurance claim. Because the claim has not been acknowledged by the third party, the revised renewal premium reflects an ongoing claim (where there is no third party to recover any outlay, the customer’s insurer will have to repair the damage).

“However, once and if the third party accepts liability and the insurer can make a recovery of their outlay, the premium is recalculated back to the renewal date and the difference is refunded back to the policyholder.

“This is standard practice within the industry, but the position should be explained clearly to the policyholder. We apologise for not making this clear at the time. It’s unfortunate that this incident occurred at the point of renewal, as a mid-term claim would have given more time to settle before renewal, potentially reducing the financial impact.”

Although this gave you some comfort in knowing you would receive a partial refund for the premium, you were still miffed at the temporarily higher premium.

But then, right at the last minute, the AA said it did in fact have sufficient evidence you were not at fault and agreed to charge you an amount similar to the original renewal quote you received. You have accepted this and are glad to have this fiasco behind you.

Given the stress this episode caused, I wonder whether you might consider protecting yourself by installing a dash cam in future and setting it to “parking mode”, so you can record any incidents that might occur? It may be worth a look. Good luck.
&lt;&lt;&lt;&lt;&lt;&lt;&lt;&lt;&lt;&lt;&lt;&lt;&l t;&lt;&lt;&lt;&lt;&lt;&lt;&lt;&lt;&lt;&lt;&lt;&lt; &lt;&lt;&lt;&lt;&lt;&lt;&lt;&lt;&lt;&lt;
Not sure I see the point of the last paragraph.
The 'victim' had all the info'....but to no avail.

This is going to sound quite ignorant to most all of you. I hold the smallest amount of insurance on everything I personally own and will not make a claim unless it is catastrophic.

I wrote a 6 paragraph tirade about the insurance industry and lobbyists but decided to spare you all.

There is a special place in hell for insurance companies. Reform needs to happen sooner than later.


Sent from my Apple privacy invasion product

[Dyim]

OP, I feel your pain.

Even if it is fully covered by insurance, this will go on carfax and you will have diminished value when you try to sell.

Unfortunately, you will lose no matter what.

Even if you found the guy, I don’t think you will really gain much financially speaking.

It would be nice to make him accountable. However, now he might know who you are. He might not even have insurance.

You really don’t know what he is going to do with your information.

I would just chalk it up to bad luck and move on. At the end of the day, your wallet suffers a bit and that’s it. Not worth getting more involved by trying to find him.

I know it is easy for me to say because it is not my car. But if this ever happens to me, I’ll probably just let it go once my initial shock and anger is over. I can always make more money. Get a new car. But stressing myself out is just not worth it sometimes IMO. Don’t want to waste my brain power/ psychic energy.

[Evv3]

I'm leaning towards filing the claim with my insurance company on Monday and moving on from it. I was holding off, as to feel whole I feel I'd really need to hammer my company with loss of use, diminished value, etc. Not something I'm looking to do as renewal is coming soon and I'll expect a decent increase. I'll save you all from my insurance company rant as well. Reform is certainly needed.

As some have said, police do not want much involvement as it happened in a lot and there weren't any injuries.

As far as social media goes, I've held off for many of the exact reasons listed. If I did post, it would probably just be photos of him and his vehicle without much detail about what happened other than he ran. Would not post a photo of my car. I don't post much on social media as it is. He does not look like the type to get combative if he were to see the post.


Thanks again for the input guys.

[Speedbird-1]

Originally Posted by MrGoat

There is a special place in hell for insurance companies.


Sent from my Apple privacy invasion product

Totally agree.

[Calatrava r]

Originally Posted by Evv3

As some have said, police do not want much involvement as it happened in a lot and there weren't any injuries.

Thanks again for the input guys.

In my state the police would not do anything since it occurred on private property and the vehicles had already been moved.

[Widows Son]

Originally Posted by donas

It's criminal in some locations no matter what. You cause damage and leave the scene is prima facie evidence of hit and run unless the suspect can make a legit claim he feared for his safety and was going to a safe location to report the incident.

Hmmmmmm....I guess I should have qualified that I was only familiar with the laws in my state where I investigated accidents for 30 years. Yes, I'm sure other states have different laws. Certainly "Intent" plays a factor. Granny scratching a parked car with nobody inside, and not knowing that she had done it, wouldn't fly criminally where I worked. At least I can assure you that our prosecutor wouldn't touch that with a 10 foot pole, especially if on pvt property. Again, I'm not saying that if located the driver couldn't get cited for the damage, but that's a far cry from a "Hit and run."

[dmash]

Originally Posted by donas

It's criminal in some locations no matter what. You cause damage and leave the scene is prima facie evidence of hit and run unless the suspect can make a legit claim he feared for his safety and was going to a safe location to report the incident.

or the suspect could *easily* claim he/she didn't even know he made the damage, if he/she never got out of the car.

Not that I agree with it, but no, it's 100% not 'criminal in some locations no matter what', that's just blatantly false. You really think Grandmother is being charged in criminal court for backing into somebody in a parking lot and driving off? Absolutely not. There's no proof of wrongdoing if they never get out of the car. Now if said individual gets out of the car, inspects the damage, then drives off without a note, yes, that *is* criminal in some locations (although very few, as it's personal property in a private location, that's civil most everywhere).

Not being argumentative just pointing out the facts

[donas]

Originally Posted by dmash

or the suspect could *easily* claim he/she didn't even know he made the damage, if he/she never got out of the car.

Not that I agree with it, but no, it's 100% not 'criminal in some locations no matter what', that's just blatantly false. You really think Grandmother is being charged in criminal court for backing into somebody in a parking lot and driving off? Absolutely not. There's no proof of wrongdoing if they never get out of the car. Now if said individual gets out of the car, inspects the damage, then drives off without a note, yes, that *is* criminal in some locations (although very few, as it's personal property in a private location, that's civil most everywhere).

Not being argumentative just pointing out the facts

Every state has different requirements. Beyond that, every officer has the discretion to make what charges they deem to fit. There is no point going back and forth on here, we are all just trying to help the OP. As far as private property, in the state I worked, all it took was a sign saying law enforcement has jurisdiction on the property and even speeding tickets could be written in a parking lot.