A punk, his key & my car

Gig-O-Ram · May 8th, 2007

The other day, I'm watching out my window as some questionable types come onto my apartment property and start giving some kids who live here a hard time. My wife suggests I go outside and cover my car. I go downstairs to cover it...and I see that one of the punks who had been harrassing those kids had decided my car would look better if he ran a key up and down the length of both sides.

At this point, the kids who did it are no where in sight, and I'm just looking at the damage to my paint, which ranges from minor surface scratches to deep gouges that go through the paint and clearcoat.

I go upstairs and tell my wife about it, and I think I frightened my neighbor because I'm cussing about it when we went back downstairs, and she peeked out her door and asks if everything is alright. "Nope! Someone keyed my car!"
She was fairly alarmed, because she has a new Chrysler 300 parked near mine.

So, I call the police to make a report and they come out to take a statement and they got some prints off the car as well. They asked me to get them some better pics (which they still need to collect) since the camera they had sucked. Fortunately, there are witnesses who live here, but I'm not sure if they'll be asked to make an identification.

My insurance company is being surprisingly good about the whole thing, and covering all of the damage, less my small deductible ($100). Total estimated damage is just over $3,600 which includes all the labor and other work needed to disassemble the body for repainting. I read the work report, and the stuff they're gonna have to do to make the repairs is disgusting - a 79 step process and 60-80 hours of work over nearly 3 weeks. I'm gonna pony up another $100 to have them work out some dings on my hood, and I'll get two small dents fixed as well. So I'll be down $200, but I'll get a new paint job basically for free. It's times like this that I'm glad for insurance.

Here's some pics of the "key art":

polobunny · May 8th, 2007

Excuse me, but that's pretty f***ing disgusting. There's some people... argh...

Zambini · May 8th, 2007

its people like this that make me vote pro-choice

EvoDude · May 8th, 2007

Sorry to hear this Gig. Some people are just low-lifes. We gave up the city life 2 years ago and moved to a V rural area of the Scottish Borders. Man, life is sweet here. Every body stops to chat, kids wave (with empty hands

) as you drive past and life is just generally friendly.

OK so I've got 3 miles to nearest pub, 5 miles to nearest shop, 8 miles to nearest gas station but, I can leave my precious Beemer all night with doors unlocked, even a window open and it's still gonna be there in the morning.

Life is about balancing ups with downs and I think we got it good here

**Hitman** · May 8th, 2007

Yeah it's great when your insurance actually works for you. No matter how bad you want to beat those kids asses, its best to just make a police report and file with insurance.

Gig-O-Ram · May 8th, 2007

Quote:

Originally Posted by polobunny

Excuse me, but that's pretty f***ing disgusting. There's some people... argh...

Thank you very much... I can't tell you how hard I work to keep my Mustang looking good - frequent washing (though in the pics, it's dirty because of dirty, dusty places I've been lately), keeping the finish waxed and polished...and now this...

Quote:

Originally Posted by evodude

Sorry to hear this Gig. Some people are just low-lifes. We gave up the city life 2 years ago and moved to a V rural area of the Scottish Borders.

Thanks, bro. Scottish borders? You live in Scotland, I take it? What part? My wife has some friends who live in Newcastle, and we've been meaning to get over there, but you know how life goes. But we saw them in London a few years back, though.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Hitman

Yeah it's great when your insurance actually works for you. No matter how bad you want to beat those kids asses, its best to just make a police report and file with insurance.

I've been surprised that they haven't given me a lot of hassle about it. The only problem I've encountered, was that the girl who set up the appointment for the adjuster to go to my dealer and inspect the car today made a mistake, and set it up for the guy to go to a place in another city nowhere near where my dealer (and car) is. So now I have to wait another day for the adjuster to go to the right place, and in the meantime, I have to rent a car until such time that the dealer and insurance company can agree on a price. Hopefully, it won't take more than a day for that to happen. So I get to drive a KIA Spectra while I wait...

Oh, and let's just say that - were I to meet the kid who did this to my car, it would be Extremely difficult for me to not do something that would land me in jail...
It would be best for everyone concerned if I didn't.

EvoDude · May 8th, 2007

Quote:

Originally Posted by Gig-O-Ram

Thank you very much... I can't tell you how hard I work to keep my Mustang looking good - frequent washing (though in the pics, it's dirty because of dirty, dusty places I've been lately), keeping the finish waxed and polished...and now this...

Thanks, bro. Scottish borders? You live in Scotland, I take it? What part? My wife has some friends who live in Newcastle, and we've been meaning to get over there, but you know how life goes. But we saw them in London a few years back, though.

Mustang huh? Nice

I live about 5 miles the Scots side of border on the east coast. Newcastle lights can be seen away on the horizon to my south. If you ever get over, give me a shout - I'll treat you to pint of good Scots beer.

**Capper** · May 8th, 2007

Same here, if you ever come to the states, let us know.....we have good people scattered all over....and if you are ever in Germany, give Hitman a holler, he heads up the HardwareLogic European HQ

EvoDude · May 8th, 2007

Quote:

Originally Posted by Capper

Same here, if you ever come to the states, let us know.....we have good people scattered all over....and if you are ever in Germany, give Hitman a holler, he heads up the HardwareLogic European HQ

Thanks Capper, I'll bear that in mind. Might just take you up on that when my compensation claim comes through for my recent road accident.

PS That's a healthy looking set of specs you're running mate, what do you use it for?

**Capper** · May 8th, 2007

I use it for running this site....reviews, testing, etc. Site backs, template edits, code editing for all the articles and most often for being target practice for everyone here while playing Counter Strike