Someone Smashed the Supernova
Yesterday evening between 4pm and 5pm, somebody smashed my parked Honda car and took off. Here's what they left me:
You can see that the car has been crushed up against the curb and the right rear wheel is bent badly, so the car is undriveable. I think the axle is probably broken but I won't know until I can actually get under and look at it in daylight.
Since nobody got a license number of whatever hit my car, the police can't really do much about it. Two different "witnesses" gave me two utterly divergent descriptions of what they thought was the vehicle that hit it; really, is it that hard to tell the difference between a "black car" and a "white work van type thing"? One of these witnesses actually cleaned up what he said was "smashed glass" all over the place around my car - which must have been from whomever hit it, since all the glass on my car is intact - but didn't bother calling the police. How neighborly. Apparently there was an eyewitness, but she doesn't speak much English and wasn't home when I knocked on her door anyway. I will do my best to try to talk to her and find out what she might have seen. I seriously doubt she wrote down a license number.
Basically the car is totaled, because it's only worth maybe $500 at most, and this is about $2000-3000 worth of work to fully repair - maybe $1500 just to make driveable and street legal again. I have to call my insurance company to deal with it and find out what their advice is. I could probably make it driveable again myself for $500 or less (which would be worth it to me), but I don't have the proper work facility (a garage with a lift) at which to do the work. Fortunately it's still "legally parked" so I can leave it where it is for a few days while I sort things out.
Well, fuck.
All I can say is, the culprits should be glad that I wasn't within eyeshot when it happened.
People are fucking assholes. First of all, the asshole(s) who hit my car and then took off. They are total scum. Second, the folks who saw or heard what happened and didn't immediately call the police. Hit and run is a serious crime, in many cases an actual felony, even when it's just property damage. Even if the witnesses didn't call the police, they didn't bother to write down any information or even look at a damn clock to see exactly when it happened. WTF is wrong with people these days? No civic consciousness whatsoever.
I mean, I've seen stuff like this happen, I witnessed an accident that happened right in front of me, I stopped and went back and told the police what I saw, and took a day off work to show up in court to testify - and I'd never met any of the people involved!! Complete strangers, and I didn't even think once to sacrifice a vacation day to go do what I see as anyone's duty to their fellow human beings, their community, and frankly the ideals and basic principles of our society.
Yeah yeah I know, to most of us modern cynics that sounds utterly corny, but fer Christ's sake, making a good community and good nation that provides a good life for its people starts with people helping each other out and treating each other well and as equals. If you were driving, and someone smashed into your car and drove away, who would you want as witnesses? People like my "neighbors," who barely noticed anything had happened, or a guy like me who would get the asshole's plate number and even chase him down if I could, and at least stop to help and tell the cops what I saw?
Eh, it's probably always been this way. Most people are just crappy and self-involved.
And so now it looks like I will have to say goodbye to the Champagne Supernova. It is a great little car which has been very useful and excellently reliable, and which I took really good care of for the whole time I owned it. I only put about 30,000 miles on it in a bit less than 8 years. It took me back and forth to San Diego a couple dozen times, helped haul The Girlfriend's stuff when we moved her to my building, and got a minimum of 28 miles to the gallon at all times. I'm sure it will get salvaged and fixed up and sold to someone else who needs a cheap but totally solid car.
I'm pretty pissed, and bummed out that my perfectly useable car is now essentially junk. Ah well. It's not like I'm suddenly without any transportation... but I was really hoping to keep that car a long time, and I was even thinking about getting a paint job and getting the interior redone, which would cost a lot less than buying another car.
Meh. People suck sometimes. I gotta get back to work.
You can see that the car has been crushed up against the curb and the right rear wheel is bent badly, so the car is undriveable. I think the axle is probably broken but I won't know until I can actually get under and look at it in daylight.
Since nobody got a license number of whatever hit my car, the police can't really do much about it. Two different "witnesses" gave me two utterly divergent descriptions of what they thought was the vehicle that hit it; really, is it that hard to tell the difference between a "black car" and a "white work van type thing"? One of these witnesses actually cleaned up what he said was "smashed glass" all over the place around my car - which must have been from whomever hit it, since all the glass on my car is intact - but didn't bother calling the police. How neighborly. Apparently there was an eyewitness, but she doesn't speak much English and wasn't home when I knocked on her door anyway. I will do my best to try to talk to her and find out what she might have seen. I seriously doubt she wrote down a license number.
Basically the car is totaled, because it's only worth maybe $500 at most, and this is about $2000-3000 worth of work to fully repair - maybe $1500 just to make driveable and street legal again. I have to call my insurance company to deal with it and find out what their advice is. I could probably make it driveable again myself for $500 or less (which would be worth it to me), but I don't have the proper work facility (a garage with a lift) at which to do the work. Fortunately it's still "legally parked" so I can leave it where it is for a few days while I sort things out.
Well, fuck.
All I can say is, the culprits should be glad that I wasn't within eyeshot when it happened.
People are fucking assholes. First of all, the asshole(s) who hit my car and then took off. They are total scum. Second, the folks who saw or heard what happened and didn't immediately call the police. Hit and run is a serious crime, in many cases an actual felony, even when it's just property damage. Even if the witnesses didn't call the police, they didn't bother to write down any information or even look at a damn clock to see exactly when it happened. WTF is wrong with people these days? No civic consciousness whatsoever.
I mean, I've seen stuff like this happen, I witnessed an accident that happened right in front of me, I stopped and went back and told the police what I saw, and took a day off work to show up in court to testify - and I'd never met any of the people involved!! Complete strangers, and I didn't even think once to sacrifice a vacation day to go do what I see as anyone's duty to their fellow human beings, their community, and frankly the ideals and basic principles of our society.
Yeah yeah I know, to most of us modern cynics that sounds utterly corny, but fer Christ's sake, making a good community and good nation that provides a good life for its people starts with people helping each other out and treating each other well and as equals. If you were driving, and someone smashed into your car and drove away, who would you want as witnesses? People like my "neighbors," who barely noticed anything had happened, or a guy like me who would get the asshole's plate number and even chase him down if I could, and at least stop to help and tell the cops what I saw?
Eh, it's probably always been this way. Most people are just crappy and self-involved.
And so now it looks like I will have to say goodbye to the Champagne Supernova. It is a great little car which has been very useful and excellently reliable, and which I took really good care of for the whole time I owned it. I only put about 30,000 miles on it in a bit less than 8 years. It took me back and forth to San Diego a couple dozen times, helped haul The Girlfriend's stuff when we moved her to my building, and got a minimum of 28 miles to the gallon at all times. I'm sure it will get salvaged and fixed up and sold to someone else who needs a cheap but totally solid car.
I'm pretty pissed, and bummed out that my perfectly useable car is now essentially junk. Ah well. It's not like I'm suddenly without any transportation... but I was really hoping to keep that car a long time, and I was even thinking about getting a paint job and getting the interior redone, which would cost a lot less than buying another car.
Meh. People suck sometimes. I gotta get back to work.
posted by Jeff Z at 10:19 AM
4 comments
