Legal
The damage to my 1985 BMW 325e, occurred on Liberty Street in San Francisco during the weekly 12 noon street cleaner ritual, 2010-11-27. Maria Carmen Comaduran (415-515-1186) was having great difficulty getting into a tight spot with her large and bulky Ford Explorer (license plate shown), so she had an apparent neighbor do it for her, in whose process, my hood was crimped in, my bumper scraped along the top, and my black plastic/chrome radiator grill mounts were destroyed. I pulled my car back from the first image (my bumper had gone under the SUV's), so I could photograph her license plate. This damage later brought about my grill's destruction, lodging in the cooling fan, possibly contributing to a blown water pump and related mechanical breakdown. The hood, as a result of the impact(s) no longer opens and closes easily and occasionally does not latch.
Although she was ultimately responsible for the damage, a fact Maria acknowledged at the time, she has refused to contact me. I have documented my attempts to contact her over the years, and have been advised by the police to file a report for hit and run, though I do so reluctantly. It was my impression she wanted the neighbor to be responsible for this damage, but it appears she did not broach the subject with him, nor try to remedy the situation with me when it ultimately came time to repair the vehicle. The last image is current time, showing rust at damage points and the missing grill piece. Follow up: I finally got her to pick up the phone by calling with a Skype account, she claims she talked to a lawyer who told her I could not prove she was responsible, even though she admitted she was at the time and said she would remedy the problem, which turned out to be a lie. This is a person who, although she had a well-paying job, refused to buy a battery for her Volvo wagon, and every week would inconvenience a stranger to jump start her car which had been sitting for an entire week, for years, on a street she didn't live on, immediately before the street sweeper arrived, stressing the stranger out, absorbing good will selfishly, which it appears, is how she operates in the world. She could change my mind about her, by following through with her word, but I don't expect that will happen.
