[Closed] Would you own up if you hit a parked car and nobody saw you?

Probably. Some twonk has done it to me a couple of times very annoying.

I did when I was parallel parking and I reversed into another car and cracked the numberplate (I had a tow bar on that car at the time). Bloke almost thought it was a wind-up when he phoned me. Gave him £20 for a new number plate and I was happy I had done the right thing.

If I'd done more damage I would like to think I would have owned up, but who knows what you'd really do...

nobody saw you?

In our surveillance society, how can you ever be sure nobody is watching you?

Yep...and have done. Hit a parked car in Brighton and left details on windscreen. 😳

Brother had his car written off whilst parked outside his house...drive didn't leave details 😡

For a little tiny scrape maybe not but any actual damage then yes definitely. Mind you I always drive tatty cars so my definition of a tiny scrape might be different to others.

If I'd done any damage (and I'm probably more capable of determining the likelyhood of hidden damage etc than many) then yes, but if I'd left NO damage at all I'd not. Even if I'd just scuffed the paint a little I'd own up, because I hate the miserable sods who damage my car and drive off without saying a thing.

That said, with many of the large 4x4's its fairly easy to hit things and have absolutely no idea you have. We had an old rangey and I reversed it (very slowly and carefully) into a plastic-coated steel post buried in the concrete in a carpark. I had no idea I'd flattened it at all until I spotted the marks on my bumper and went back to check, it hadn't made a sound or anything.

You have to remember it's not how YOU value your car or cars in general, its basic respect for other peoples property regardless of whether you think "its just a car, they get scrapes". I actually know someone who now has a criminal record for driving away from such an impact after the owner spotted them from 3 floors above and took their reg number. They were charged and prosecuted, IIRC, with leaving the scene of an accident.

Someone smashed the rear light on my van a couple of years ago. They left a note that read something along the lines of.........

"Sorry I smashed your light, people saw me do it. They think I'm leaving my details....... I'm not. Have a nice day"

It made me chuckle so wasn't that bothered 😉

It made me chuckle so wasn't that bothered

That would make me find any CCTV footage in the area and spend more time trying to get them dealt with by the law. They know they've done wrong, they don't care and they are laughing at you. Nice people.

First week of passing my test bay parking front swung round scraped a car... drove off very quickly (so young and stupid). Couple of months ago edging out of a narrow space slipped off the clutch accidentally and slightly scraped a car so left a note with my number still not heard anything. My car might have had the odd scrape off other people wouldn't notice though!

i paid up when the hand brake on the wifes TT failed and it rolled into another car. owner of the other car was so happy we'd left details as we'd restored their faith in humanity! they went out of their way to find a low cost repair which given that it was a brand new car they would have been quite justified in insisting on a dealer approved repair. in the end cost about £200 which was well worth it for the warm fuzzy feeling of doing the right thing.

"It's fairly easy to hit things and have no idea you have"
Maybe you should leave the car at home

I've had cards printed up, its a wonderful way to (m)eat new people.

My ex-wife managed to scrape a car while parking (luckily it was my company car). She left details, and then the guy tried to screw us claiming for damage she hadn't done.

It wasn't the first time, but she never left details again - she never did got the hang of that car...

That would make me find any CCTV footage in the area and spend more time trying to get them dealt with by the law

Got better things to do with my time really.... shit happens, life is not perfect. The little smile it brought and not letting it bother me was worth the £8 it cost me at the scrappy.......

Lighten up 🙂

"It's fairly easy to hit things and have no idea you have"
Maybe you should leave the car at home

Try it yourself in a large bouncy car, at sub-2mph an impact of the sort you have with say the top of a vehicle bonnet or a low pole tends to be fairly quiet in relation to the engine noise and doesn't create a shudder or impact, it more or less gently lifts the body on the springs. There's a reason why loads of cars get the big spare-wheel-scoop in the bonnet when a 4x4 has reversed into them slowly - the 4x4 mass just pushes the car down and bearly affects the 4x4 and the driver rarely even knows theyve done it. Often the visibility out of the rear of 4x4s is questionable and so unless you've very aware of the size/edges of the rear of the car its very easy to innocently nudge a car. Not ideal, obviously, but surprisingly humans are falible at times.

Got better things to do with my time really.... shit happens, life is not perfect. The little smile it brought and not letting it bother me was worth the £8 it cost me at the scrappy.......

Lighten up

If you have a heap of a car/van and don't care about wasting an afternoon finding and fitting a new light unit, sure, no problems there. But "shit" doesn't need to be blame-free, someone made a mistake and should pay for it to be sorted for you. It's people just accepting it and leaving it that allow the offenders to get away with it, which continues the poor attitude.

Be aware of what's behind you at all times. If you can't see clearly don't reverse. Get out and have a look or press-gang a passer-by. What if that'd been a pushchair? If you think it may be a problem reversing out, try reversing in. Don't drive near me if you insist on taking the car 😉

But "shit" doesn't need to be blame-free, someone made a mistake and should pay for it to be sorted for you. It's people just accepting it and leaving it that allow the offenders to get away with it, which continues the poor attitude.

Not as bad an attitude as happily driving around in a 4x4 where you are so insulated you can't even tell when you've hit something.

Be aware of what's behind you at all times. If you can't see clearly don't reverse. Get out and have a look or press-gang a passer-by. What if that'd been a pushchair? If you think it may be a problem reversing out, try reversing in. Don't drive near me if you insist on taking the car

Indeed I had forgotten to look for that 1ft high metal post half buried in a bush, as I'd only been driving 6 months at the time I considered it a lesson. But thanks for trying to patronise me further 12 years after the fact 😉

Not as bad an attitude as happily driving around in a 4x4 where you are so insulated you can't even tell when you've hit something.

Not really, at one is an accident due to low-placed single steel posts in a woodland carpark with trees around its edges around the post, one is a blatent disregard for others property and flouting the law. You have some odd priorities!

I find it Interesting that busses with multiple CCTV cameras have done over £100,000 of damage to cars in my road in the last 2 years and not stopped and admitted to it.
Bloody Tory deregulation.

Someone smacked into me and I sued him for whiplash (I was taken into casulty) and repair of my car which I did myself on the cheap!

Day 1

Car looking good as new. Parked in Tesco. Scratched bumper by somebody parking without glasses.

Parked at Mall, watched someone nugde the car. They got out to say sorry while I got in the car and drove off.

Now the car is full of dents-it's my bike mobile to Wales now and as long as an Elephant doesn't sit on it I couldn't care what happens anymore.

Cars are sh*te

Always stop and exchange isurance details-thats why we buy car insurance for!

Cars are sh*te

Cars are great in many ways, and it's nice to have one you enjoy looking after and keeping looking good for your own interest and enjoyment, if people have a sense of responsibility and care. Unfortunately many people don't and that can be infuriating.

If people often rode into your wheels and buckled them, with them occasionally needing replacing, you wouldn't be leaving them to it and letting them ride off would you? People leave bikes locked up outside my old work, passers buy would kick them out of the way or walk on them damaging them, and walk off. Is that acceptable too?

Cars are great in many ways, and it's nice to have one you enjoy looking after and keeping looking good for your own interest and enjoyment, if people have a sense of responsibility and care.

Some people need to realise that there are more important things in life than having a really shiny car.

I had a drunk man fall onto my car from some scaffolding last year, dispite having a broken arm and being unable to move from my car and having witnesses he still relentlessly denies it was him. He was also taken away in an ambulance.

Oh forgot to add as I'm a driving god* I would never hit another car.

*in my own mind

Some people need to realise that there are more important things in life than having a really shiny car.

It's not a case of there being more or less important things - that's the childs argument. No-one suggested it was the be-all and end-all. The point is that it's something someone likes, has paid their hard earned cash for and whether it's a car, a cat, a bike or a house, you should respect that and not damage it or treat it like you don't care, even if you don't care about your own. Regardless of the object, treating other peoples property disrespectfully is simply pathetic and wrong, and trying to justify such a poor attitude by blaming the owner for enjoying owning something is quite frankly disgusting.

I don't care about flowers or gardens, but I don't randomly ride through my neighbours knocking over the plants because I know it's a disrespectful and unfair thing to do. The same applies to care around other peoples cars, bikes or anything else. Remove the word "car" and replace it with any other object you might buy and want in reasonable condition and you'd have a different answer.

I've hit loads of parked cars on my bike, coming home from the pub pissed. Bloody inconsiderate people, leaving their cars where I can crash into them...

A mate of mine was once found by police, fast asleep on the bonnet of a BMW, which he'd thrown up all over. Now the stomach acid he'd expelled would be a bit corrosive to a car's paintjob, I'd imagine.

The coppers apparently couldn't stop laughing, and told him 'as it's a BMW, we'll let you off'. 😀

I'm the type of person who deliberatly parks in the furthest spot away from the shop in a huge empty carpark so that there is no other cars likely to park next to me and ding the doors. Amazingly, some people must see my car all alone in the corner and think it needs a freind so will come and park right next to it, perticually if the rest of the car park is empty? I just dont get it? morons. If in such circumstances I managed to loose my door in the wind, or sudenly loose all ability to drive and scrape there car, ill definatly not be leaving the ideots a note. so there! lol

In fact people should adopt the same rules for choosing a parking space as blokes do when choosing a urinal in a public pisser! You know what i'm talking about! 😆

trying to justify such a poor attitude by blaming the owner for enjoying owning something is quite frankly disgusting.

Write a letter to the Daily Mail about it mate - you sound suitably outraged. I'm not the one who goes around knocking over steel posts in his car btw - hope you paid for the damage. 😆

The coppers apparently couldn't stop laughing, and told him 'as it's a BMW, we'll let you off'.

Aye, very mature of them. Glad they're policing the streets 🙄 Mind you, your mate sounds like a tool also!

Amazingly, some people must see my car all alone in the corner and think it needs a freind so will come and park right next to it, perticually if the rest of the car park is empty?

I agree, some sort of odd hearding instinct. I park at the opposite end of the car park in the biggest space available and still come back to find I'm jammed in and some idiot has left a nice dent in my door.

Write a letter to the Daily Mail about it mate - you sound suitably outraged. I'm not the one who goes around knocking over steel posts in his car btw - hope you paid for the damage.

Wouldnt need to if people had an ounce of respect.

Actually I re-installed the steel post at my own cost after discussing it with the owner, yes. You see even at 17 I still had respect and the balls to admit to my mistakes even though I was the only one to see it. Not everyone does I guess.

You see even at 17 I still had respect and the balls to admit to my mistakes even though I was the only one to see it. Not everyone does I guess.

Perhaps you ought to award yourself some kind of medal. 😆 I've done similar before when I dinged someone's car in a car park. No-one saw me but I went and found out who's car it was - couldn't see any damage but I thought I'd let them decide.

I just don't get so uptight and self-righteous about it all 😉

I just don't get so uptight and self-righteous about it all

So ultimately you do have the same morals as I do, but chose to be troll? 🙂 Congratulations.

[IMG] [/IMG]

I owned up while I was flailing the side of a brook at work in a village, a stone came flying out and smashed a windowscreen. I didn't even hear the screen smash it's only because as I reversed up I saw it and knew it wasn't smashed when I first went past it. Their wasn't anyone around, no witnesses but I knocked on a few doors and found the owner who was very grateful and swapped details.

I've also had someone reverse into the side of my car with a bike rack causing damage but they kindly left their details under the wiper.

[b]coffeeking - Member

"It's fairly easy to hit things and have no idea you have"
Maybe you should leave the car at home

Try it yourself in a large bouncy car, at sub-2mph an impact of the sort you have with say the top of a vehicle bonnet or a low pole tends to be fairly quiet in relation to the engine noise and doesn't create a shudder or impact, it more or less gently lifts the body on the springs. There's a reason why loads of cars get the big spare-wheel-scoop in the bonnet when a 4x4 has reversed into them slowly - the 4x4 mass just pushes the car down and bearly affects the 4x4 and the driver rarely even knows theyve done it. Often the visibility out of the rear of 4x4s is questionable and so unless you've very aware of the size/edges of the rear of the car its very easy to innocently nudge a car. Not ideal, obviously, but surprisingly humans are falible at times.

[/b]

that'll be driving without due care and attention then

[b]Parked at Mall[/b]

🙄

Very often i go to supermarkets and spot the precious owners of their precious cars have parked at the far side of the car park away from everyone else so i deliberately go over and park right next to them. Makes me laugh seeing their dismayed faces. 😉

Sore point. My wife when she was nursing had to park her car as all nurses did in the P&D.
Every panel has a dent in it from visitors no one ever wrote a note.
Probably would though, shame you can't get a credit on Karma.
I mean that's what insurance is for, and lots of people have protected NCD.

Good Karma to do so. A few years back I knocked a cars mirror and smashed it (although to be fair their car was terribly parked and sticking out), but I stopped and left my details. I never heard anything from them but was pleased with myself for leaving details.

Aboout 4 weeks later, someone wrote my drivers door off and was going to drive away without leaving their details. A bystander stopped the woman and made her give her details, the bystander then left me a note.

What goes around comes around.

that'll be driving without due care and attention then

It's poor driving but my point, which you all seem to have missed by a surprising way, is that not every impact and driveaway (regardless of fault) is done on purpose. But you can keep trying to drag it down the other route of fault-finding if you like.

I mean that's what insurance is for, and lots of people have protected NCD.

I have protected NCD but it only protects for 2 claims in one year, or 3 in a 3 year period IIRC (fairly standard insurance practice) and since I seem to get 1 new major dent due to someone smashing their door off mine about once every 3 months, people would be paying every time as their NCD would be out of the window in a matter of a couple of years. Plus paying excesses. Not fair at all, and just because some people are careless and once they've been careless they drive away and leave you to pay.

I like to make damn sure that if someone has parked up close to my car and left a dent with their paint colouring in it that they are not driving their car away when I've left it - 2 flat tyres and a note thanking them for the damage. I've only had to do it once so far, as I met the owner of the car the last time it happened - a hyperactive lady who was too tied up in having to get to her meeting who smashed her door off mine while I was sat in the car. I got out and asked her what the hell she was up to (she'd made no attempt to apologise) and for her insurance details. She refused, so I dropped both her drivers side tyres. Hopefully that'll slow her up and make her think next time, it was a tad childish but I felt a lot better afterwards and no damage was done.

Lol at that picture, probably explains why I found a similar note on my car once, basically just saying "Apologies, clipped your car but couldn't see any damage" and no contact details. Luckily I couldn't see any damage either but always seemed pointless leaving the note but I guess there were witnesses.

Mind you, your mate sounds like a tool also!

Right, I'll tell him. I'm sure he'll be thrilled to learn that you care so much.

I dropped both her drivers side tyres.

Which is technically Criminal Damage.... 😉

Hit a parked car in Brighton and left details on windscreen

fail - brighton has special 'spanish' parking rules bumping cars is ok. in the BN1 postcode. 😕

MrTall it might be worth having a cycle around your area and looking for cars of the same colour etc. Basically it might be a neighbour who has now decided to park a street or two away 'until the heat has gone down'.

A **** in a red Jimny in Hebden bridge decided to swipe my passenger mirror but keep going. I spotted this but wasnt quick enough to get his/her reg. I am however keeping alookout around the area- you never know.