The CSI Effect

Let me set the scene:
At our new place we have odd parking. We basically share a spot (I'm loathe to call it a driveway since it isn't paved) with our neighbor. They get half and we get half. Since we have two cars Shanna and I have to park behind each other. Since I go to work everyday I park behind Shanna; on weekends when we go places as a family I park in front and we take Shanna's car (the one with the car seats). It is occasionally annoying when we need to move one car to get the other out. When that happens we park the car on the street and move it back later. Why don't we always park on the street you ask? Well, North Olmsted has a law that prohibits street parking from 2am-6am.

Friday, 7:33 am
As I went outside to leave for work I realized that I had left my car parked on the street all night long. Grateful that I didn't get a ticket I went on my merry way.

12:29 pm
I went out to my car to come home for lunch and noticed a dent and scratch on the driver's side of my car. It looked as if someone hit it backing out or pulling into the parking space. I checked the car right next me and didn't see a matching mark on their car. I went to the security desk and they told me that they can pull the security tapes to see if it happened in the parking lot and who did it. I got the number to the Captain's office, headed home, and told Shanna.

Saturday, 12:37 pm
Ken and Patti (Shanna's parents) were visiting from Cincinnati and we all decided to head out to do some shopping. As we were leaving Shanna noticed a scratch on the right rear bumper of the car across the street. The scratch matched the paint color on my car and lined up perfectly. It was pretty obvious, to us at least, that the owner backed into my car while coming out of his driveway in the wee hours of the morning. I called the police and they offered to send a car out to investigate but since we were already on the road I said I would call back later. And later I did.

6:06 pm
The North Olmsted police department sent their finest: Officer Justice. I'm not kidding. Officer Jake Justice, 6'8", 280 lbs of intimidating law enforcement. And one of the nicest people we've ever met. The guy was just cool. Anyway, he goes across the street to check and concurs with my powerful investigative instincts. He calls out in ET (that's Evidence Technician for you common folk) that takes some samples from the guys car and leaves a note for the owner. He asks us to keep an eye out and give him a call when we see activity at the house so he can swing by. We never do. The house is dark all time.

Sunday 10:55 am
As we are leaving for church we notice that instead of 2 cars in the driveway across the street there are now 3. Still no lights on in the house.

6:42 pm
As we start getting the kids ready for bed there is a knock at the door. It's Officer Justice and he has made contact with our neighbor. Our neighbor denies hitting my car saying he backed into a pole last week. Officer Justice gives him the, "Are you sure? Because it looks like you hit his car. And if we send the paint samples to the lab and they match then you could be in a lot more trouble." He's sure, he didn't do it.

Officer Justice comes back to our place to give us an update and basically tells us there isn't really much they can do. When he said they probably couldn't send the samples to a lab to get tested because of the small amount of damage. I told him that was about what I figured anyway. The damage wasn't significant and the cost and hassle of sending samples to a crime lab seemed to grossly outweigh me simply writing a check for some body damage. He tells me to get an estimate and let them know if I want to file an official hit-and-run report.

6:58 pm
Another knock at the door. Officer Justice is back. After he left our place he went outside and just stood near our neighbors house just watching. Apparently that was enough because the guy came out and waved Officer Justice over. He confessed to hitting my car. He said he was late for work Friday morning and he didn't know whose car it was. He meant to contact the police but forgot. When Officer Justice confronted him he got scared and lied. He hadn't told his wife about hitting my car but when he told her about talking to the police she convinced him to own up. He is a doctor but not a US citizen and I guess he got really scared when the police started talking about sending stuff to the crime lab. I knew they wouldn't, Officer Justice knew they wouldn't, but HE didn't know they wouldn't.

Anyway, so tomorrow I'm going to go get an estimate. The guy wants to go through his insurance company which is fine by me. I did offer to just let him pay for it without going to the insurance company. I mean his rates will go up AND the police will have to file and official state report meaning they have to cite him for hit-and-run. So he pays a fine, has his insurance rates jacked up, and has a hit-and-run on his record. But he wants to go through insurance.

We are very grateful that it all worked out well in the end. It must have taken a fair amount of courage for our neighbor to admit to the police that he lied to their face. I'm glad he did though. Not just because I don't want to pay to fix my car but because it was the right thing to do.

Case closed