Loving would be easy if your colors were like my dreams

I have seriously bad car karma this week.

As I've mentioned previously, Nolan and I go to a playgroup at a senior citizens' residence on Friday mornings. This past Friday, when the group was over, I walked out to the car, put Nolan in his car seat (which is always a struggle, he HATES the car seat) and got into the driver's seat. Then I noticed something stuck under the windshield wiper. I first thought it was a flyer, but I looked at the cars on either side of me and didn't see anything under their wipers, so it wasn't that. I got out and pulled out a brown paper bag with writing on it. The unsigned note said:

"A Volkswagon Golf Silver color Lic # XXXX Hit your rear bumper parking next to your car I tried to question him but he just walked away."

Fabulous. So I look at my car and sure enough, there are lovely little scratches on the left rear bumper. The silver Golf is still parked next to me. It has matching scratches on the front right bumper. What to do, what to do?

I removed Nolan from the car seat (oh joy, oh rapture!) and went back into the residence and asked the women at the front desk if they had any way of finding out who the silver Golf belonged to. They said if it was a resident's car, they'd have the license number in their registry. So they looked, but of course it wasn't there. Must be a visitor's car, they said. I asked if they had a PA system so they could say, "Will the owner of a silver VW Golf..." et cetera. They said they didn't. They suggested I call the police.

That would have been a feasible option if the damage was greater or it wasn't lunch time (actually past lunch time, the group was fun that day and we went over our usual time) for Nolan.* So I decided to leave a note of my own for the VW Golf owner.

I went back to the car, tore a page out of my notebook and wrote:

"I have a witness that saw you hit my bumper while parking. I will be reporting the incident with your car's make, model and license plate to the police and my insurance company. Call me at 617-XXX-XXXX."

It wasn't really that much damage, I just thought it was crappy that someone would hit the car and not leave a note. If they had done that, and said "I'm so sorry, here's my number and I have insurance please call me if you want to get it fixed" I probably would have looked at the scratches and gone, "Eh." But since they didn't, I felt all pissed and righteous and left my snotty little threatening note. I figured I'd never hear from the person.

To my surprise, the guy called me yesterday. He actually IS a resident at the senior's home, so I don't know why his car wasn't in their little log. He sounds like a sweet, befuddled old guy who probably shouldn't be driving anymore. He admitted hitting the car but said he saw someone in the driver's seat and since they didn't approach him, he didn't think it was a problem. Obviously there was no one in the car at the time, so who knows what kind of mental status this guy has. He couldn't remember the name of his insurance company, but he said he would get in touch with them and have an appraiser come look at the car and do a repair estimate. So who knows if that'll happen. I'm feeling kinda bad about forcing the issue. I really just wanted an apology.

Thanks for reading.

*To the tune of "Springtime for Hitler" from The Producers:
"It's lunchtime
for Nolan
and Mommy
It's time for
this boy to
get fooooood"