Hit and Run, Think I found the guy, Now insurance is probably going to total it..
 

Okay, this happened Thursday morning at 2am, and a lot has happened, so I'm going to give a play by play and summarize as much as I can:

• Thursday morning at 2;15 AM my car was parked on 3rd st near Vine st on the corner, was sideswiped by a vehicle (hit and run) on my driver’s side. I heard an explosion like sound, which could only have come from a tire blowout.


• There were people on the street yelling and I heard the collision from my balcony, I ran down stairs

• Witnesses said it was a silver car with tinted windows, and that it made a right turn onto vine and into the alleyway between the two buildings of my apartment complex

• I filed a police report, after the police left I followed the tire tracks into the alley way and into the parking garage to which I have a key (it’s my apartment complex)

• I found a silver/blue jetta with tinted windows that had damage on its passenger side and a completely deflated tire on the front passenger wheel. The tire had completely separated from the wheel

• The hood of the Jetta was still warm, which leads me to believe:
o Jetta was driven relatively recently
o Since tire was completely separated but NOT shredded, the jetta must have had an incident nearby (probably with my car)
• When I visited the Jetta on Thursday @ noon again, the paint damage had been removed from the car, but the car had not moved


On to the pictures with annotations:

1. Damage to my fender, and wheel. (not sure how this thing still held air)

http://www.suneet.com/car/hitandrun/1.jpg

2. More damage to my car, pic taken @ 3am on thursday

http://www.suneet.com/car/hitandrun/2.jpg

3. Mirror is busted, so is door. Door doesn’t close properly. pic taken @ 3am on thursday

http://www.suneet.com/car/hitandrun/3.jpg

4. You can see the tracks the perp left , pic taken @ 3am on thursday.

http://www.suneet.com/car/hitandrun/4.jpg

5. I walked into the garage and found this. Tire is separated, paint is fresh on the car, and hood temp is warm pic taken @ 3am on thursday

http://www.suneet.com/car/hitandrun/5.jpg

6. Scratches on mirror pic taken @ 3am on thursday

http://www.suneet.com/car/hitandrun/6.jpg

7. Separation of tire on jetta pic taken @ 3am on thursday

http://www.suneet.com/car/hitandrun/7.jpg

8. Larger shot showing more damage to jetta pic taken @ 3am on thursday


http://www.suneet.com/car/hitandrun/8.jpg


9. Close up of paint on jetta pic taken @ 3am on thursday


http://www.suneet.com/car/hitandrun/9.jpg

10. Damage to my car taken on thursday at noon

http://www.suneet.com/car/hitandrun/10.jpg

11. More damamge taken on thursday at noon

http://www.suneet.com/car/hitandrun/11.jpg



12. Jetta today, the paint from another car has been removed!!!!!! taken on thursday at noon

http://www.suneet.com/car/hitandrun/12.jpg


13. More of the same car taken today at noon

http://www.suneet.com/car/hitandrun/13.jpg



14. Damage has been removed

http://www.suneet.com/car/hitandrun/14.jpg

Update:

I left a note on the owner of the vehicle's car, and he contacted me. He said his friend was driving and is co-operating, but neither of them are insured.

I dropped the car off at the body shop, and the quote they came back with was for $6400. I guess every single suspension component on the front driver's side needs to be replaced, as you can see in the pictures, my front wheel/hub was pretty bent out of shape.

http://www.suneet.com/car/hitandrun/15.jpg

Now it looks like insurance is going to total the car. I haven't heard the final details from them yet, but with that amount of damage and given the value of the car, it seems like they will total it.

I filed a supplemental police report with all the evidence I have above in case the owner of the vehicle decides not to co-operate...


I don't know what to do now :( So much time and money spent on this car.. if they total it, I think I'll be lucky to get 6 grand for it.

That sucks man, at least you caught the guy even though he had no insurance not much you can do if insurance wants to total. Sorry for the loss :(

Can't you take them to court?

He openly admitted they did it and that neither of them were insured... There's got to be something you can do man!

Sorry about all of this! There's a reason why some scumbags aren't insured. THEY NEED TO STAY OFF THE ROAD!

Since more than likely they will total the car, I'd probably ask the guy to pay your $500 deductible and call it the day. Truth be told, once the guy finds out it will cost a couple of thousand much less nearly $7K he will no longer be interested in cooperating with you. He will start denying it every happened.

Hopefully you have a written confession or agreement with this guy. Even if you provide the police with all your pictured evidence, it still might be difficult to prove it was him unless independent witnesses are willing to testify in court on your behalf. After its all said and done, you might get money of out him, or you might get nothing.

If you take $500 cash from him now to cover your deductible, maybe even ask for $1000, he probably will be willing to give you the money for you to forget about it. If you present him with a $6400 bill, he will shut the door in your face and deny he even spoke to you in the past.

damn dude i was wondering where Suneet was, but so much negative stuff have happened to ur car since ur paint job. good luck with insurance dude.

dude, the main thing thats important is that you werent injured or even in the car at the time.

it sucks though, i know of all the random **** that keeps happening to your car, before and after you got it painted :(

time to move into a UCF20 ;)

Sorry to hear.
CK6Speed has a nice solution IMO.

Time to go shopping.

exactly!

:thumbup:

Believe it or not, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police have a leading paint analysis/accident reconstruction lab. If the police followed your hunch they can put that guy away from felony hit and run.

All the police need to do is match the paint scrapings on your car to his car (and vice versa), and his ass is grass. Of course it helps if witnesses can corroborate the evidence by matching his car as the one leaving the scene of the accident.

The guy cleaned it up already. Unless they can match paint from photos which he could just say was already there from a previous accident. I think the one mistake the OP did was not call the police to the scene the second he found the suspect car. At that moment the police could have done their own evidence gathering and confronted the suspect and if the suspect confessed, it is now to the authorities. Even if he denies it after that it is in the police record. At the moment though you just have a bunch of pictures, and a confession to the victim which could turn into a he said she said thing in court if it goes that far. You're going to need an independent witness if this guy wants to try and back out and deny it all.

He still has the paint scrapes/chips on his own car. That should be enough for any investigator to go on. assuming that they are proactive and really interested in solving a hit and run.

Suneet, next time that dude calls, I'm not sure if your cell phone allows you to, but record the guy or if you meet up with him, make sure you have a friend come with you who can witness the exchange.



More than likely, all they want is their $30-40 for a police report with the final line, "No suspects seen or heard" or something along those lines... :mad:

My god that terrible! THat dude HAD to have been drunk. There is no way I could ever side swipe another vehicle while backing it out all the way from the front fender.

Hope everything works out for you man! :thumbup:

Just curious--why didn't you call the police again after you found the suspect car?