Is this smoking gun evidence on a hit and run? See what you think. This happened to me a few days ago (don’t worry, I’m fine!). Here’s the story.

I was at a restaurant with my wife Paige and a couple of friends when I received a text that said this:

“Hello Mr./Mrs. DOUGLAS AUSTIN, Your parked GLC 300 4MATIC Off-Roader had a parking damage. Mercedes-Benz Collision Care will call you shortly to assist you.”

I get plenty of spam texts, but this one had my name and my car make and model, so it seemed legit. So, my friend Greg and I decided to go check on the car in the parking lot a short distance from the restaurant.

It was a bit overcast and drizzly at the time and our car was pretty dirty, but Greg and I looked it over pretty thoroughly (I thought) and didn’t see any damage.

But I noticed that my car was a little crooked within the parking spot (but still within the lines), so I thought I would straighten it up. When I turned on my car, this message was on the dashboard console.

Whoa! Note the time – 3:00pm on 9/6.

Still, not having found any damage, we returned to the restaurant. After eating, our respective wives went to get a few things at the store, so I offered to drive Greg back to his house. When we returned to the car, something was different. There was a note stuck in the windshield (the note included the plate number of the person who hit me and the phone number of the lady (Laura) leaving the note – both redacted for privacy reasons in the image below):

Greg and I looked again and, this time, we did find a minor scrape on the left rear fender and left rear wheel well. It was easy to miss.

I texted Laura and said thanks for the note and, yes, please send me the picture. Laura told me that she left a first note and the lady who hit our car went back around and took it off. So, she left a second note, which was the one we found when we came back. Thank goodness for Laura!

Here is the picture with metadata from Laura’s iPhone (license plates and driver’s image redacted):

That car appears to be pulling out of the space right next to my green car to the right. Note the time – 3:00pm on Saturday, September 6. Same exact time as the message displayed on my car. Boom.

Want more? Here is a close-up of her car in that picture (again, with privacy redactions):

See the corner of the front bumper? It’s damaged, right where it would have likely made contact with our left rear fender and left rear wheel well when she pulled out of the parking space.

Boom, boom. Mic drop.

That seems like smoking gun evidence on the hit and run to me. As for what we’ll do about it, we’re not sure. We could file a police report with the Woodlands police department (with the goal of identifying the lady and trying to get her insurance to pay for the damage). But the damage is minor and the hassle of getting it fixed could be a pain.

So, what do you think? Is this smoking gun evidence on a hit and run? Do you have any good smoking gun evidence ESI stories you would like to share? Please share any comments you might have or if you’d like to know more about a particular topic.

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