I'm a repatriated SHS Alum raising my children in Shorewood after being away for 20 years. Don't have family here but am the monkey in the middle - friends' parents are counselors, old friends are golden, and new friends refreshing. I'm a grad student, visual artist, and humorist. I plan to tell it like it is, from Shorewood to the surrounding areas. Inspirations are Gilda Radner's Roseanne Rosanna Danna, Jon Stewart and Suzanne Rosenblatt, whose blogs inspired me to write.
So here's what happened. I was sitting in my 2006 red Subaru Forester, our precious new car basically, in the parking lot of Best Buy last weekend. I was sitting in the car, spacing out, half-heartedly checking my bank balance on the phone when BAM! A car door smashed into me. I looked out my window and saw a kid getting into his SUV on the passenger side, looking terrified, suddenly, that I'd seen it too. And then the car started backing out of the spot, and I LEAPT out of my car and started saying "NO NO NO this isn't happening!" Not my car. Please no! They stopped, the dad came around, felt the deep ding, and said "Yep, that's a ding allright. I'd like to keep my insurance out of this, but let's exchange numbers." So we did. Because that's now my husband's work car, I am never in it..except on weekends...and it has no carseats. So I haven't been to get an estimate. Sigh. I just called them today to give them an update, and to ask for an email address because that's how I communicate with the outside world these days..and they called back. And the wife was MEAN. She was so mean to me! "I can't believe you're going through with this, my van is covered with dings, someone actually broke in to my van for no reason, and really, I hope YOU never have kids because they do this all the time." I was shocked. Granted, I caught them, and if they'd gotten away I wouldn't be able to ask them to cover the damage done to my car. She then said "I have family in the car business, so when you get your little quote from the dealer, we're going to send you to one of our own people."
We've only ever dealt with our dealer on this car, and were planning at some point to resell it or trade it in. The ding makes a significant difference.
Am I wrong to ask this family to pay for the son's damage to my car?
