Monday, September 11, 2006

Bad Carma

My dad had really bad car luck. Not tragic or anything, but pretty bad. He was once hit head on by a bus trying to turn left (my dad and his car were stationary at the time). But the story I remember most is this. My dad and a friend had gone to a local eatery to pick up sandwiches. (I can only assume that they were on their way back from somewhere because when I say local I mean three blocks away.) His friend had completed his transaction and moved out to the sidewalk to wait. While waiting he noticed a car trying to parallel park behind my dad's car. And then he noticed the car totally misjudge it and hit the door behind the driver's door on my dad's car. And then he saw the car stop trying to park and drive around the corner.
It was about this point that my dad exited the shop. His friend had gotten a good look at the car culprit, so they did some looking. Figuring that the person in question probably had business in one of the shops on that block, and that they may have decided to keep on despite the car mishap they took a look around. And found the car. So they waited until the shopper returned. And mentioned that they had noticed her hitting the car. At this point the driver fessed up. Apparently she had a teenager who had just involved the family cars in several incidents thus creating her fear of reporting this to the insurance company. And all was resolved. I thought of this as I read the lovely (and not at all boring) Heather's story about her car.
Some of the most interesting car stories do seem to happen to parked cars. Perhaps because they tend not to involve injury, and tend to involve people trying to get away with something. I had one friend who looked out her window to discover someone had parked their bumper on top of hers. That's right, they had parked so close that their bumper was actually resting on hers. Not knowing who the culprit was, they notified the police who came to document it. When the person returned he told her he had a friend who fixed cars and it would all be kosher. And it was, after she called a few times to remind him that he needed to pay for said damage.