Car gets dinged - person is caught police say nothing can be done?

Deusfaux

Friend happened to catch a woman ding her car in a mall parking lot.

Woman's car was white and parked next to friend's. Woman suspiciouslly then was on her way to move car from one spot at mall to another spot when confronted.

Acted sort of ignorant.. friend confirmed white mark on car.

Woman went back at one point while friend was inside and tried to rub away mark and wrote in dust with finger or otherwise "what mark?" - possibly scratching the car further.

friend has licence plate and photos before and after


went to cops, cops say "not hit and run since car wasnt running - happened in parking lot". say damage not over $1000 then out of luck.


what means does friend have to pursue this? is it a matter for small claims court only? how does that work? thanx

Chief1138

Not sure but I'm guessing this is one of those things that depends entirely on your state.

see317

Most states (AFAIK) parking lots are private property, thus rules of the road don't apply.
You could try small claims court. If you do, try to get the security footage from the mall.

Deusfaux

she did speak to security - unfortunately no footage of that area or something.

we're in alberta

tardcore

Yeah small claims court is the best you can do AFAIK.

Serpent

call the car insurance.

stigweard

Get three repair estimates from reputable auto repair shops and if they all come out over 1000$, head back to the police and try again. I'm not sure what is going on there, but here, even if the car is not on, you can be charged with fleeing the scene of an accident. It happened to my father in law. He is disabled and can't run his neck so he has special mirrors in his car, but he accidentally dinged another vehicle and didn't even notice. The police showed up at his door an hour later.

Sarcastro

It's that whole insurance deductable thing. If your frind has collision and the repair bill is going to cost over the deductable, then let the insurance company pursue it and have a gooder. With no collision, or a very high deductable, the insurance company doesn't care, and you have to pursue on your own terms - small claims court.

When the police say they can't do anything, its just because it's not a criminal charge, there is still the posssible civil dispute if you want to go down that road. May be worth your time, maybe not so much.