help needed contacting the police and opinion needed

hollydays

havent read all the thread-sorry-but the note was useless without the contact details-also there are issues if it was on private property.Your intentions were right,but to help you have to be prepared to go that little bit further.The police now would probably be a waste of time-you could try,but i doubt they would be interested.However if you did make that call- your details might be logged on the pnc and a connection might be made at some point,but i doubt it.

Out of interest-why didnt you leave your contact details?

Noz

Just ring the police again

superscaper

hollydays wrote: »

havent read all the thread-sorry-but the note was useless without the contact details-also there are issues if it was on private property.Your intentions were right,but to help you have to be prepared to go that little bit further.The police now would probably be a waste of time-you could try,but i doubt they would be interested.

Happened to my brother a few months ago, a driver reversed full speed up our road and smashed into my brother's car and drove off. No question of evidence because he'd just dropped off a passenger who was able to give my brother the guy's name even. The police found his house within about 20 minutes of the "accident" even happening. But all the police did when they got there was get the guy's insurance details to pass on to my brother and they just basically told him it was best in future not to drive away from an accident. No caution or anything :rolleyes:. Which is why I don't think the police would bother doing anything in this case. In my brother's they got the guy and he'd admitted it along with multiple witnesses (including a passenger of the car) but even that wasn't enough for the police to actually go through a process of even giving him a caution. As far as they were concerned so long as my brother got the insurance details (which turned out not to be enough detail and slightly wrong anyway) that was the end of the matter.

WestieFan

It's a shame you didn't leave your contact details. I came out of work to find my door caved in and badly scratched and a note on the windscreen from a kind person who witnessed it (the driver was doing a u-turn).

The note he left gave the registration number of the car that hit mine and his own telephone number. I phoned the witness and he gave me his name and address, and agreed to be a witness for me. I went to the police station with the note, told the story and got a reference number from them. The police went to see the other driver, who denied it. Like others have said, they didn't do very much, as their main aim apparently was to find out if he was insured, which luckily he was. The fact that the guy's bumper was bashed and covered in paint from my car didn't seem to interest them (I saw the car near to where it had happened a few days later!).

I contacted my insurance and gave them witnesses' details. It took a while, because the guy still insisted he didn't do it but the witness gave detailed information on the form they sent him. My insurers finally got a settlement from the other guy's, my car was repaired and I got my no-claims bonus back.

I was very grateful to the witness, as it would have cost me a fortune to have it repaired myself and could have lost 9 years no-claims. Thank you that man!

red_devil

i didnt leave my details as i was wary about leaving my details on someones windscreen i wasnt comfortable sorry giving my number to a stranger.

Im still not sure what to do. I dont even know what the car driver who got the note thinks and im too presuming they did see it.

Do you know what i am wishing now i had said something to the man concerned like tapped on his window but you cant be too careful these days and i didnt know how he would react? You only get a split second to think?

It has annoyed me and ive got the info just dont know what to do next?

KILL_BILL

yes too many people do hit and runs in car parks especially becuase they no that they can get away with it withou being noticed. if they damaged a car whilst in a line of traffic the option to do a runner is not so great.

i too left my details after witness a woman hit a parked car tring to get out of a car park space - the force with wichi she hit the car was so great that she actually lifted the front end off the car - if she didnt see that then she must have been blind - and she didnt stop - i wnet and got a pen and paper from the tesco and left my details but the owner never contacted me to get a statement

thats all you can do leave your details - if they contact you they do

superscaper

If people are worried about leaving personal contact details maybe for future reference they can leave an anonymous email address. That way you can be contacted without leaving your identity exposed to anyone who simply walks by and takes the note. And any nuisance email can be treated like spam and is hardly in the same league as getting nasty phone calls etc.

Nicki

I would contact the police again, by phone or by dropping them an email or even a letter if that's easier.

For those who say the police will do nothing, our car was hit in a hotel car park about 8 years ago. A witness kindly left the details of the offender at the hotel reception, together with their contact details. The police were called, they traced the driver ( a young girl of 17 who had just passed her test) and went round to her house and told her that unless she (or her father as it turned out) stumped up for the damage to our car that she would be prosecuted for driving without due care and attention and for leaving the scene of an accident. Everything was sorted out for us within about 6 hours. We never knew the contact details of the witness but without them coming forward (and being verifiable as a witness) we would have been several hundred pounds out of pocket.

superscaper

Nicki wrote: »

For those who say the police will do nothing,

Only speaking from personal experience myself (see above).

red_devil

superscaper wrote: »

If people are worried about leaving personal contact details maybe for future reference they can leave an anonymous email address. That way you can be contacted without leaving your identity exposed to anyone who simply walks by and takes the note. And any nuisance email can be treated like spam and is hardly in the same league as getting nasty phone calls etc.

ok, but i havent got an anonymous e mail address and that person might not be online anyway or have an email address.

Update i emailed the police they said e mail back with all the details and what you saw and they said sorry you couldnt get through on the phone they were busy dealing with more urgent calls.