How to track a guy who hit my car... suggesstions?

[sea2summit3]

Thought I'd throw this out to the infinite wisdom of homebrewtalk!

A guy backed into my car in the middle of the night, but was kind enough to leave a note, a first name, and a phone number. He expressed a desire to fix the damage he did. I got an estimate for fixing the body, and the guy thought the estimate was too high (its actually the best price in Reno I can find). I offered to take my car to his auto body shop for an estimate as well, which he expressed interest in, but now won't return my phone calls.

Its been one and a half weeks with no word. Even though it was the holidays, I think he's ditching the idea of fixing my car. Has anyone had luck using websites like peoplelookup.com? The site claims to give address, name, etc if you pay a small fee. Does anyone know if this site is legit? Any suggestions? I'd like to take more than a first name and phone number to file my police report.

Thanks in advance for any advice!

 

[ChshreCat]

Can you get his full name using a reverse phone book?

Something like this:
http://www.anywho.com/rl

 

[WIP]

Take the info you have and the note to the police. File a report at least. Have your insurance company fight it out. You pay for their lawyers.

 

[greeneyed]

Have you talked to the popo? With a first name, a phone number, and a hand written note, they may be able to find him without an address.

 

[tpgsr]

Just give the note to the cops. They will get all of his info and grab him on a hit and run.

 

[northernlad]

That certainly sucks. If he is insured who gives a crap how much it is. He'll only be stuck with the deductible.
I would call him one more time for the benefit of the doubt. If he fails to respond in a timely fashion call the cops. They have a great reverse look-up hook-up and your tax dollars have already paid for it.

 

[the_bird]

Is he just not answering your calls? What if you call him from someone else's phone? Let him know that if he doesn't respond in a timely manner, you're going to the cops. No reason to take matters into your hands beyond that, if you track him down and there's a confrontation, that's not necessarily going to look good for you.

 

[the_bird]

Forget I said to call the cops; I forgot you're in Reno...

 

[mmb]

... if you track him down and there's a confrontation, that's not necessarily going to look good for you.

+1

He's on the hook for hit and run. Give him one more call, leave the message and give the cops a chance to help him make things right.

 

[Doc Robinson]

Have a friend call his number claiming to be an agent with the IRS. Have the friend/IRS agent explain that it appears that based on his past 2 tax returns, he failed to claim an exemption that entitles him to a currently payable refund of $500. Make sure your friend changes his VM to, "Hi, you have reached [insert his name here] with the [insert the nearest biggest city here] branch of the Internal Revenue Service. Please leave your full name and number and I will return your call as soon as possible."

Either that or post at least 4 Craigslist ads for men seeking men (you will need to create at least 4 fake email accounts to do this). Post his real phone number. You may not get your $$$, but you will go to your grave with the satisfaction that his VM was inundated with "I want my cock in your ass ASAP messages."

 

[BBKing]

Is he just not answering your calls? What if you call him from someone else's phone? Let him know that if he doesn't respond in a timely manner, you're going to the cops. No reason to take matters into your hands beyond that, if you track him down and there's a confrontation, that's not necessarily going to look good for you.

Ditto to this.

Especially the "warning shot" (so to speak) with the notice that you'll be going to the cops.

But honestly, with some patience and a whole lot of typing, I would think you should be able to find out everything you wanna know about the guy with his first name and especially his telephone number

 

[Schlenkerla]

I agree, he might be out of pocket with the holidays. Give him another call. Tell him you can work it out w/o calling the police but he needs to suggest another shop to contact. At a bare minimum he needs to call you back so it doesn't escalate. Wonder if he has insurance or a DL.....

The fact that he left a note says he has some integrity, give him a chance to make things right.

 

[MBasile]

Notify the police and file a report. Contact your insurance and open a claim with them. He heard the high cost and realized there was nothing legally requiring him to pay for that damage at this point. Once insurance gets involved it'll be a different story. DO NOT accept cash for the repair. Use the insurance, that is what it is for.

 

[sea2summit3]

Wow.... thanks for all the great responses! (even the Craigslist/Reno 911/IRS posts!). I used the $0.95 peoplelookup.com website and was able to get his name and address. I had no idea you could get an private address that easily I was planning on filing a police report tomorrow. This accident happened on Dec 14th and the last time I called was 2 days ago (Jan 2). He hasn't called back so I figure call him one more time from a different phone. I'm going to suggest we solve this among ourselves and if he doesn't have something worked out that afternoon, I'll file the police report. I agree that he may have been on vacation, which is why I'll give him one more chance. He also mentioned he runs tow-trucks, so I might be able find his work number...

I don't hold comprehensive insurance on my vehicle, so my insurance company could probably care less. (Having been being laid off and then unemployed for 7 months I made the decision to maintain health insurance rather than comprehensive car insurance.)

Someone destroyed the rear bumper on my dad's car on Thanksgiving eve, and the Reno PD didn't do anything for them. I hope that having this guy's information will get me somewhere...

 

[northernlad]

You won't need comprehensive if you have Uninsured Motorist Protection on your policy.
If you have his name and address and the PD doesn't help you with this then you could always take him to small claims court. The note he left should make it a slam dunk for you.

 

[sea2summit3]

You won't need comprehensive if you have Uninsured Motorist Protection on your policy.
If you have his name and address and the PD doesn't help you with this then you could always take him to small claims court. The note he left should make it a slam dunk for you.

I'm kinda ignorant with insurance... never had to file a claim in 12 years. I figured it would be easy enough in small claims court with his note. Almost word for word, it says " I hurt your car and I'd like to fix it. Pleas call..." with his first name and phone number. I was happy that he had left the note, but he was less than enthusiastic on the phone (actually only talked through voice mail... I'm pretty sure he doesn't answer when he sees my number). After I told him the estimate, he said "that's too high, I'm not going to pay for that. I'd like to get an estimate from my body shop". Never heard back from him after that voice mail.

 

[Schlenkerla]

I'm kinda ignorant with insurance... never had to file a claim in 12 years. I figured it would be easy enough in small claims court with his note. Almost word for word, it says " I hurt your car and I'd like to fix it. Pleas call..." with his first name and phone number. I was happy that he had left the note, but he was less than enthusiastic on the phone (actually only talked through voice mail... I'm pretty sure he doesn't answer when he sees my number). After I told him the estimate, he said "that's too high, I'm not going to pay for that. I'd like to get an estimate from my body shop". Never heard back from him after that voice mail.

From the sound of it he probably willing to work with you. A too high comment is common for a first quote when its an unknown. Another quote that's similar will solidify the actual cost.

I think he know hes on the hook but would not like to get taken, if you know what i mean. Therefore 3 quotes is a good rule of thumb.

How bad is the damage? What's the urgency? Seeing the guy face to face might help. He might be very honest but being strapped for cash might make him judicious in accepting a quote.

Bring beer if you go to visit with him. It might be good for breaking the ice. Then he knows you aren't a dick and you might actually be friends after this.

He chose to leave a note so he seems worth giving the benefit of the doubt. Being cheap doesn't make you a bad person.

Hope it goes well for you.

 

[northernlad]

At my job I get the "Thats too much" all the time. Compared to what?
So give him a compared to what. It is irrelevant what he wants to pay. Getting 3 quotes including the one from his shop is the way to go. Make sure his shop is licensed and bonded. I had a friend try the back lot paint job and he got it straight up the keister.
Show him the three quote and take the one in the middle.

 

[lowlife]

Not calling the police and trying to deal with it yourself isnt the smartest of ideas in my opinion. Sounds like you are going to get screwed because you are too timid to call the cops. But what do I know.

 

[broadbill]

Not calling the police and trying to deal with it yourself isnt the smartest of ideas in my opinion. Sounds like you are going to get screwed because you are too timid to call the cops. But what do I know.

+1 to this...I don't understand why people pay for insurance every month, then don't think/want to actually use it when they get into an accident.

To the OP: To me, it sounds like this guy has some sort of issue with either his insurance or his driving record and he is trying to keep them out of this. But that isn't your problem.

Your problem will be if you agree to use "his" body shop and they don't fix your car right. Will this guy then pay to have it fixed right? Of course not. You won't be able to go after this guy in court (not easily anyway), and you can't file for a claim with your insurance after the fact.

Do it right, do it the easy way...turn it into your insurance company and let them handle this.

 

[broadbill]

At my job I get the "Thats too much" all the time. Compared to what?
So give him a compared to what. It is irrelevant what he wants to pay. Getting 3 quotes including the one from his shop is the way to go. Make sure his shop is licensed and bonded. I had a friend try the back lot paint job and he got it straight up the keister.
Show him the three quote and take the one in the middle.

But how long will it take this guy to go around and get three quotes, all to get the guy who hit him the best deal? Screw that....

 

[Kaner]

Wow.... thanks for all the great responses! (even the Craigslist/Reno 911/IRS posts!). I used the $0.95 peoplelookup.com website and was able to get his name and address. I had no idea you could get an private address that easily I was planning on filing a police report tomorrow.

Just wanted to add that you need to watch your credit card/bank account statement after using a site like that. I used peoplefinder.com for something very similar and about a month later there was a charge on my account for $39.95 from some credit monitoring site. After about 50 phone calls of me screaming at different people to find out where the charge had come from, it turned out that they had gotten my bank information from peoplefinder.com, who claimed that there was a little box that popped up when I checked out for the $0.99 people finder fee, that they claim I checked, and by checking this box I was agreeing to sign up for this credit monitoring sites services and more importantly their fees. I can tell you that there absolutely was no box that popped up, and even if there had been there would have been no way in hell I would have agreed to it. After getting nowhere with pf.com I finally had to contact the BBB and told them if they could not resolve the issue I would contact the police for giving out my personal bank information to anyone that pf.com seemed fit. They relayed that message to pf.com and about a month later I got my money back. Sorry about the rant but just trying to give you a heads up on what they might try to do to you. Even though it's not the same site, they might be owned by the same company.

 

[sea2summit3]

I agree that he might not be bad guy. But I also believe that having to take a lot of extra time to get the best deal quote for him is ridiculous. Especially when I know the place I took it does a great job and are usually a great value. If he wants me to take it to his shop, I would be happy to do it. If it were me that did damage to his car, and I truly intended to fix it, I would at least give a call to prevent him from thinking he was going to get screwed. I'd like to give him the benefit of the doubt, but don't want this going on for months. The damage to my car isn't horrible, but I don't want to be dealing with this next spring.


Kaner: I did have a pop up window, which I almost clicked "continue" until I realized they were trying to rope me in. I read every little word on the site until the transaction was completed. I'll be calling today to be sure my "account" is removed from the system. Thanks for the heads up!

 

[northernlad]

But how long will it take this guy to go around and get three quotes, all to get the guy who hit him the best deal? Screw that....

I did not suggest giving the guy the best deal. 3 quotes is SOP and if the guy is insured, his insurance will demand it. The guy doesn't want to pay it because its too high so he'll have to be shown at least one more quote anyway.
If the OP does his due diligence, if it gets ugly and he has to take him to court all his ducks will be in a row and he will win.

 

[Homercidal]

Even if you get a quote from "his" shop, I would not take it there. There is no way I'd trust them to do it right, and today, there are plenty of ways to do it wrong. I'd turn it in to your insurance company and see what they say. I'd guess the cops are not going to be helpful in this instance.

With insurance, at least they can find out what insurance he has, and go after them for repairs. If he has any.

A friend of mine got hit by an old guy who was backing up in a parking lot. He was real sorry, and offered to fix it. He had no insurance, and my friend was off work and could not meet deductible. As of today, it's still not fixed. Probably been over a year. Don't let that be you.

 

[the_bird]

Did you file a police report? You'll probably have to do that anyway before insurance will pay. My wife smashed up our Civic a few months ago, and we had to fax them the police report. They didn't require that we get quotes from multiple shops, they told us we could take it anywhere (but by taking it to a shop that they had an agreement with, we got bumped in line and got our car back within a week of the accident).

 

[Houblon]

Call the cops, make a report along with your insurance company and let them do the work.

Either that or post at least 4 Craigslist ads for men seeking men (you will need to create at least 4 fake email accounts to do this). Post his real phone number. You may not get your $$$, but you will go to your grave with the satisfaction that his VM was inundated with "I want my cock in your ass ASAP messages."

I have a buddy who did almost the exact thing with a jerk landlord but I shouldn't say anymore ....

 

[TxBrew]

Good luck with the cops. I was in a hit and run with no note. I actually found the truck that him me and called the cops. After over an hour later they show up, angry, look at everything and tell me they can't do anything.

Ended up being an illegal immigrant I was able to get some money out of.

 

[Berkbeer]

Just a side note - I watched a hit and run on my narrow street I was able to see the license plate and gave it to my neighbor who the called the cops. It was really only scrapes to a quarter panel but the cops came out took a recorded statement from me and then presented the other driver with their findings and the option to take care of the issue or get arrested for a hit and run. Some times the popo can surprise you.

 

[Joeywhat]

FWIW unless you're in a designer neighborhood where the cops actually give a damn about these things (and probably have nothing better to do) they won't do much. Not worth the effort, manpower and money to track down some dope for a hit and run when the damage was relatively miniscule and nobody was hurt.

DO file a police report, on the off chance he does something stupid again and gets caught the hit and run might come back and bite him.

 

[springer]

You won't need comprehensive if you have Uninsured Motorist Protection on your policy.
If you have his name and address and the PD doesn't help you with this then you could always take him to small claims court. The note he left should make it a slam dunk for you.

I don't know the insurance law in your state but in most uninsured / underinsured called UM only covers medical bills not property . NY is this way so filling a claim would do nothing for his property damage. Some states have Uninsured property damage which will cover damage to property the op would need to read his policy

Get a police report to document the accident