Location: Orlando, Florida
I apologize for the long title, but genuinely lost in what to do. Before I continue I would like to recognize my own faults in taking too long and not being instant with actions. Never been in a situation like this before. I should’ve been more on top of things.
On Wednesday, June 18th 11AM, a man driving his truck with a trailer, scraped the left side of my front bumper. It’s not exceedingly horrible, but he separated the side a bit leaving a gap where it connects to another part of the bumper. Some of the bodywork got scraped out and is sticking outwards. There’s a huge L shaped scratch alongside the edge and my wheel got scratched too. My car is parked on the side of my house and it is positioned at an inner corner, meaning my car is right in front of where the corner starts. My front door neighbors had a construction crew working on their house where they had two trucks with construction equipment parked along their side of the house, leaving only a narrow space. The driver did initially knock on my house door which is shown in the video, but nobody heard it, meaning he knocked instead of hitting the door bell. I don’t mean to blame him for not knocking the appropriate way but neither me or my sister heard it. He gets back in his truck and tries slowly getting through but as he turns the corner, his trailer scrapes my car and wheel, and you can visibly see the car lift a bit as he damages it.
Unfortunately, I didn’t notice until two days later after the fact when I was leaving work and walking towards my car. I hadn’t known who struck my car and I had asked my workplaces to seek through camera footage to see if they could see who hit it, but my car wasn’t hit by anybody in their videos. I had figured given where it was damaged it was likely at home, so I had gone through the video footage from our security footage overlooking our driveway and I found it. I can see the guy’s face, I see his black truck and white trailer, but I don’t see his license plate anywhere. Not on the back of his truck or on the back of his trailer. The footage isn’t some 4K quality, but it’s discernible enough to able to tell he does not have a license plate on his truck or trailer.
Trying to not involve cops, I had posted the video and asked if anybody knew the man on a Facebook community group of the city I live in. Three kind folk sent me the same address and it was only until today, that I had tried going to his house with my pops to see if he had wanted to trade insurance information or try to settle it amongst ourselves. He was friendly enough to come out and let us talk with him in his garage as it was raining. The first thing I had said was “You hit my car” and he replied “I know.”, so he willingly confessed to me in that moment he knew he hit my car but didn’t go back to try and solve it and committed a hit and run. I asked him to see what he wanted to do about it, and proceeded to ask me, “Who parked first, you or the construction crew?” My pops tried answering for me but the guy cut him off, and said “I’m talking to him.” which was pretty rude and from there we both knew this guy wasn’t going to cooperate. I said I did, and he then explained it’s the construction crews fault, which I replied to with no, you hit my car and it’s your fault. He then said it’s my fault for parking there, and if I want to call cops, I could. I said if that’s where you want to go, sure. We walked away and he said condescending things like “Hey, I tried to help.” Ignoring it, we went home and called the cops. It was pretty clear he wasn’t going to exchange any info and his truck was backed into the side of his house, where his license plate isn’t visible still.
After 3 confusing transfers of department to department, we got in contact with a cop who had a pretty unfriendly tone. I explained the story to the cop, and while I do understand it’s the cop’s duty to ask questions, most of them seem redundant and clearly expressed to me that he wasn’t thoroughly following. It felt like he didn’t care about the situation, as he then pretty much explains to me how insurance works, how I was wrong to not call the cops instantly, and proceeds to tell me there is absolutely nothing he can do or any police can do to help me as it has been way past 48 hours after the incident. He explained to me about three times in such a condescending tone how insurance proceedings work and how I need to either get the guy’s insurance info or his license plate, which I repeatedly explained, I tried to. I ask the cop if they could get his info for me, which he replies to with no. After a point, he says “I don’t know how many times I have to tell you this, but there’s absolutely nothing we can do” and I being frustrated call him useless and he happily says “Yes, we’re useless, have a good day.” and hangs up.
I’m pretty frustrated at this situation and truthfully don’t know what to do. At some point in the call the cop told me to pay out of pocket which left me defeated as I thought this whole time, the cops would be that last resort to reliably resolve it but that wasn’t the case. I have video, I know where the guy lives, but I don’t have the one of the two pieces of information I need to get it solved, his insurance or license plate. What can I do? What should I do? I recognize my faults in waiting so long, but I have my job I had to attend to and my pops wanted to tag along, which today was the only day we both had off together. If you guys want video of the incident and damage I could post it.
TLDR: I found the guy who hit my parked car, he didn’t give me any info or cooperate, and cops apparently cannot do anything. I don’t have the other party’s insurance or license plate. What can I do?
Comments
File a claim with your insurance policy. You’ll have to pay your deductible, but they’ll also try to get reimbursement from the other party’s insurance company.
Why did you write all this? The title provided the only important information.
So do you have collision coverage? Let you insurance handle it. If not, you can sue the guy in small claims, maybe that will suddenly get his insurance involved.