What to do in this situation?

[OULobo]

I was driving my girl to her work while her car was in the shop and I had to travel through one of the most notoriously crime ridden areas of town. The traffic patterns in the city and the location of her workplace made this part of the trip unavoidable. While driving past the crackdealers and gangbangers a little kid on the side of the road whipped a small rock into the lexus in front of me. I saw the rock dent the car and then watched as I passed the kid, he picked up another rock and got ready to throw that one too. I was lucky in that I got past before he was ready to throw the next one, but I'm sure someone behind me got pegged.

My question is that if he hit and damaged my car, what could I do about it? If I stopped and got out, I would look like fresh whitemeat tryin to pick on some neiborhood kid to all the gangbangers around. If I get through that what could this kid and his family do to fix the damage. Most of the families in the area don't have enough money to eat well, much less fix the damage their son could've caused to my car. If I just drive on the kid gets away with it and just keeps doing it and i get stuck with a scratched dented car or a $300 bill to fix it. Police might be able to help, if I could get them to come out for such a minor thing, but even then the kid just gets chastised and his family probly still couldn't afford to fix the car. Court would prbly cost me more than the damage to the car.

 

[TheRustyOne]

I woulda kept on driving. Not gonna risk anything in the shady side of town.

 

[Cthulhu]

Another thing to consider is that someone else told the kid to do that hoping a driver would stop to confront the kid. Said driver would then get jumped by any number of felons.

Cthulhu

 

[Cryozombie]

Call the cops and have em shoo the kid off the street. It wont fix your car, but it might save him or someone else.

I mean, it Could be he throws that rock at someone pissed off enough to shoot him for it. Or someone gets out and gets shot.

 

[theletch1]

I mean, it Could be he throws that rock at someone pissed off enough to shoot him for it. Or someone gets out and gets shot.

Excellent point. Folks get a little crazy the minute they get behind the wheel. Remember the old Disney film from drivers ed (yes I'm that old) where Goofy does a Jekyl and Hyde with the car? Back in '99 there was a trucker running the loop around Atlanta with his wife and 3 yr old son in the truck. The wife was in the jump seat and the son was in the sleeper. Someone behind him decided that he was running to slow and when they passed the fired a pistol into the truck and the round struck the 3 yr old in the head. Why?

 

[Bob Hubbard]

Call the cops.

We've had a number of scumbags get their jollys tossing rock off overpasses...in 1 case, a cinderblock.

Was a nice, multi-car smashup with fatalities.

Some dirtbag tossing rocks, etc into traffic can easily cause an accident. Startle a distracted driver, plow into a pole. Messy.

Let the cops deal with it...it helps if you can ID in detail.

 

[theletch1]

Originally posted by Kaith Rustaz
Call the cops.

We've had a number of scumbags get their jollys tossing rock off overpasses...in 1 case, a cinderblock.

Was a nice, multi-car smashup with fatalities.

Some dirtbag tossing rocks, etc into traffic can easily cause an accident. Startle a distracted driver, plow into a pole. Messy.

Let the cops deal with it...it helps if you can ID in detail.

Had college (age) kids doing the same thing on U.S. 460 in Blacksburg Virginia several months ago. Took out the windshields of several trucks as well as the driver side mirror of mine. No time to react to the rocks coming at you. They were hiding behind a bridge abutment that goes over train tracks. Plenty of rocks there on the tracks. The only thing the police found was a couple of empty beer cases and lots of empty cans. The idiots got away down the tracks.

 

[dearnis.com]

Call and report the incident. Get a case #. Call your insurance company and have them cover the damage. It is an OTC/Comprehensive claim for a criminal act damaging your car so your rates can't get surcharged. Will the kids ever be caught; no. They know when a cop is on the block and they get very lost!!

Do not stop; as noted above this stinks of set up.

In the case of heavy objects going off an overpass, call that in immediately; it is life threatening.

 

[kenpo12]

Definitely no stopping. Report it to the local PD. If nothing else they will patrol through and get the kid to move.