Rear-Ended! Again!

Regular readers of this blog know that I sustained a serious back injury in 2005 when a cab driver ran a stop sign and plowed into my car, a Crown Victoria, undercover police interceptor that I bought second hand some years before. Indeed, one reason I blog is that the back injury I sustained is a permanent one that curtails a lot of activities usual for me prior to the accident.

Yesterday, I was rear-ended again. This time I wasn't in the vehicle. Thank God.

Yesterday's accident occurred in the parking lot of the swimming pool while I was doing laps, and the driver left without leaving a note on my vehicle. When I was ready to leave for the day, I came out to the parking lot, saw the damage to my rear bumper, and began the quest to find out who had committed the deed; as my car is quite old, I carry only collision coverage. After a few minutes of the life guards doing some asking around, a teenage boy who knew the details of the collision came to the guard's desk at the front of the clubhouse to talk with me. The exchange went somewhat as follows:


BOY: Something happened to your car?

AOW: Yes, somebody hit it here in this parking lot and left black paint all over my rear bumper.

BOY (peering out into the parking lot, where the car was nearby and in plain view) : Which car is yours?

AOW: The Crown Victoria.

BOY: I don't know what a Crown Victoria is.

AOW (pointing specifically - few cars in the parking lot) : That car right there.

BOY: Which one?

AOW (pointing again, forcefully this time) : There. That one. The biggest car in the parking lot. The sedan.

BOY: Oh. I don't see any damage.

AOW (exasperated) : Well, if you walked out there, you'd see the damage. There's black paint all over the rear bumper.

BOY (feigning ignorance and squinting) : Which car again?

AOW (deadpan, pointing) : That one! The undercover police interceptor.

BOY (frightened) : Oh. Let me call my mother. (walks a few steps away and speaks into his uses cell phone) Hello? Mom? We're in trouble....

About an hour later, I got a phone call from the remorseful guilty party. She'll likely be paying out-of-pocket for the repair to my car instead of going through her insurance coverage as, honestly, the damage doesn't look extensive. First thing this morning, I'll take my car to Maaco, where I had the entire vehicle restored just a year ago, for the estimate to repair yesterday's damage.