Had a little wreck today.
And I mean little.
I’ve been delivering Coffee News for almost four years now — off and on — and this was my first bump on the job.
I pulled into a space in front of a Chinese Restaurant, ran in, delivered the papers, ran out, got in my car, put it in reverse, and hit a parked car.
Got out and took a look.
There was damage. Very, very little. I wiped most of it off with my finger, and a little scratch remained. About the size of a lentil, maybe. Looked more like a small smudge.
Problem is, the car belonged to the Sheriff’s Department.
I went in the restaurant. Only one large table was occupied. It was full of deputies. About twenty of them. They had just had training and were having lunch. They were all talking. All having a fun time.
I interrupted and told them what had happened.
The captain accompanied me to the scene of the crime and inspected the damage. He called the local police department.
He asked me if I had been parked in the handicapped space. I didn’t exactly lie.
I pointed to the space near the handicapped space and said I was parked “over there.” Please know that there were three handicapped space — all empty — and I had in fact parked in one of them for about fifteen seconds.
He asked me if I had been wearing a seat belt. I didn’t exactly lie.
I told him I had just delivered papers and gotten back in the car, and might not have been, couldn’t really remember — but if I had to answer the question definitively one way or the other, I guess I was wearing it. My next stop was, in effect, on the other side of the parking lot — and I had not, in fact, been wearing the seat belt.
He wrote the report and informed me that this would not be reported to the state, since there was so little damage. They would call me tomorrow. The county has their own body shop and it might be something I could pay directly, so that my insurance wasn’t affected.
All this took about an hour.
Before he let me go, he thanked me for being honest.