False Accusations

I work in a small town in Marin. To my delight, there is a residential street a few blocks from the office with all day parking. I can always get a spot and don't need to worry about paying a meter or moving my car every few hours. It is fabulous...usually.

One day I arrived at my car after work and saw a business card on the windshield. It was from the local police. There was a message requesting me to call. I called, but could not reach the officer and had to leave a message. I started freaking out. I had NO idea what it could have been. My coworker and I looked all around my car for scratches or dents, thinking someone might have hit my car. Nope. Nothing. The next day, the police officer called me back and said some guy claimed I hit his car and dented it. He filed a hit and run against me.

I of course became furious, because I did NOT hit his car. I think I would distinctly remember doing so, especially if I hit it hard enough to dent it (which, for the record, would have been nearly impossible for me to do in such a small parallel parking space, even if I tried.). Also, there was not a single mark on MY car. And since I did not hit his car, there could not have been any witnesses to this event. So let's get this straight...without anyone seeing a thing, I somehow found a way to gather enough speed while parallel parking in a small space to hit his car hard enough to leave a dent, and I did so with such skill that I did not leave a mark on my own car, and then I just left my car at the scene. Yeah...that makes sense...

I am not without sympathy...this guy is pissed because someone hit his car. I get it, it sucks. But don't just blame the person closest in proximity with no other evidence! And charging me with hit and run? I neither hit his car, nor did I "run." My car was still there! The ONLY thing I was guilty of was having the bad fortune of being parked behind a person at the precise moment he discovered a dent on his car. Buddy, it's a public street...anyone could have hit your car. If you didn't see it happen, and there is no mark on my car, and the spot is tight anyway, then you got nothin'. Suck it up and leave an innocent person alone!

I hate being blamed for wrongdoing I did not commit. It truly offends my sense of justice. Especially because I am an extremely honest person. Once I DID bump into someone's car while I was parking. I was on a hill, and my car rolled into the car in front of me. I don't even think I left a mark, and the car was so beat up I wouldn't know even if I had (and that's what bumpers are for, right?)...but out of a sense of duty, I left a note telling them what happened and left my number. So if I left a note THEN, surely I would have left a note if I actually dented someone's car.

In fact, I'm so honest that tonight when the clerk at Safeway gave me $30, and I was only owed $20, I told him immediately. When I told him, he tried to claim he owed me $30. Did I take the extra $10 and walk? NO. Because I am an honest person. I don't hit people's cars, and I don't take money that does not belong to me. I also don't blame people for things without having some degree of certainty that they are guilty, and then file police reports on them accusing them of committing a "hit and run," just because I am angry that my car got dented.

Sure, it's no fun when an injustice is committed against you. But it doesn't make it any better to rashly point fingers at innocent people. Especially when that innocent person is a lawyer. And I've said it before, but I'll say it again...you don't want to mess with an angry lawyer. Grrrr...