Backed into while parked. Is it worth it to report?

Story time:

about 5 years ago, my car was parked on the street in a residential neighborhood. One side of the street had houses, and the other side was trees etc. My car was parked on the tree side of the street. When I got back to my car, the entire rear left corner was smashed ( quarter panel side of the tail light, and side of the bumper). No note.

I called the police, and they said just fill out a report and call insurance..but I would need to find the driver to make sure my rates don't go up.
Through power of deduction, I realised that the only way someone could hit my car in this angle would be from exiting the driveway of the house across the street. My friend who I was visiting told me that the person in that house drives a silver car, so I ring the doorbell and speak to the 50 year old lady.

Me: "Hi, someone exiting your house in a silver car hit my car, and the police need to speak to the driver"
Her: "What..? I dont know what you're talking about, look my silver car is in the garage, and there is no damage"

Her car was in pristine condition :(

Me: Hmm, thats odd. My friend was smoking out front and says he saw a silver car hit it. Must not have been you, sorry..I'll just call the officer and ask him if he ran the plate number yet"

Her: Plate number?
Me: Yeah he got the plate, but the police told me to come back in 24 hours in case the person reports to the collision center.
Her: Oh.... give me your phone number... I'll give you a call if anyone else saw anything

I found this odd, but I left the number regardless.

Within 10 mins of leaving the house, her friend calls me taking responsibility for hitting the car. Her excuse for not leaving a note: I had no paper (***** your friends house is 10 feet away!). Her husband then continues to ask me why I am getting the police involved etc and that they will just pay out of pocket.

My bluff had paid off:lmao:Turns out, the visiting friend who hit me also had a silver car.

I kept the police updated with everything as it unfolded.

The next day, I get 2 estimates of around $3000, and the husband starts saying its too much. At this point, I have the phone number, and plate of the car. They refused to give name, address, DL# etc. As soon as I told the officer that they were f*cking around, the cop went over to her house, charged her with hit and run + a few more tickets, and hand delivered the collision report to my house.

Insurance fixed the car, and rates didnt go up.


Moral of the story: Find Joe. Sometimes you need to do the police leg work yourself; they simply dont have the resources. Just keep speaking to the officers in the police station and keep them updated.
 
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I went to a police station today and they also told me I could go to a CRC, but my evidence wasn't very strong. I think I'm going to just get it repaired on my own dime, and try to find Joe and give him some beer.

Dont listen to Hedo, he's misleading you

Filing CRC report does not mean you making a claim with insurance. You should file a report to have the file opened when everything is still fresh. You don't need to make an insurance claim if you don't want to.
 
Dont listen to Hedo, he's misleading you

Filing CRC report does not mean you making a claim with insurance. You should file a report to have the file opened when everything is still fresh. You don't need to make an insurance claim if you don't want to.
That's not what @Hedo2002 said. He stated that OP was going to go through insurance, then to go to CRC. Not that if he goes to CRC he has to claim it. The wording in the post was a little confusing.

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Take note that filing a collision report (or even just calling your insurance company and inquiring about a situation like this) and then subsequently not filing a related insurance claim can raise questions at your insurance company, questions that can and might result in a negative blemish on your record.

Don't ask me how I know.

If you're going to file a claim, get a report and whatnot from the CPC if you need to resort to that. If you're going to fix it yourself in the end anyways....it never happened. ;)
 
Take note that filing a collision report (or even just calling your insurance company and inquiring about a situation like this) and then subsequently not filing a related insurance claim can raise questions at your insurance company, questions that can and might result in a negative blemish on your record.

Don't ask me how I know.

If you're going to file a claim, get a report and whatnot from the CPC if you need to resort to that. If you're going to fix it yourself in the end anyways....it never happened. ;)
Really? What does it matter to the insurance if you're not claiming it? Not being argumentative, genuinely curious. Especially since you said not to ask.

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Really? What does it matter to the insurance if you're not claiming it? Not being argumentative, genuinely curious. Especially since you said not to ask.

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They may now want to inspect the bike for proper repairs (and perhaps ask for receipts?). After all, they are insuring it and would want to know whats going on. I'm curious about this one too.
 
Sorry, just getting back to this.

They may now want to inspect the bike for proper repairs (and perhaps ask for receipts?). After all, they are insuring it and would want to know whats going on. I'm curious about this one too.

Yes, this..exactly.

There was also an attempt to place 50% of the blame on me (for what was effectively a parking lot bump someone else was at fault for) by just calling in and informing them that my vehicle had been involved in a collision even though in the end I didn't even file a claim. The other person was waffling on paying for the damage so I thought I'd just inquire with my insurance company about procedure (in case he didn't) and that opened this whole can of worms.

There was also the insistence (as per DOHC's post above) that I then get the vehicle inspected otherwise they informed me they reserved the right to suspend the insurance after 30 days. I ended up in quite the debate with them about this as the damage was so incredibly little (a scraped bumper) that it seemed overzealous that they wanted it inspected for frame damage, etc etc...although I could see their point - I'm sure others might say "oh, it's just a scrape" when half of the front/rear end of their vehicle was falling off. I was able to resolve that by emailing the adjustor photos "as is where is" while talking on the phone - he told me what angle he'd like and I sent it right then and there. A few days later they emailed me back saying they were satisfied and the issue was closed.

In the end it all went away, but it made me realize that for situations like this I should never call until I've 100% decided I'm going to file a claim. It's also made me very cautious about calling them for anything, actually, although in general my insurance company (who we've been with for close to 20 years) has been excellent, but I think that these sorts of issues are common to all insurance companies, and honestly, are probably worse at some vs ours.
 
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