“I Made A Scrape On a Stranger’s Tail Light While Parallel Parking Yesterday. Today I Got This Text”
Karma works in mysterious ways and can make your day end on a wholesome, fuzzy, and heartwarming note, even if you did something wrong. That’s what one Redditor learned after accidentally scratching a stranger’s truck while parking.
Reddit user Slathbog felt so bad about scratching the stranger’s tail light that she left an apology note with their phone number on the vehicle. But she probably didn’t expect to get a text message saying that the scratch didn’t look too bad. Or another one suggesting that Slathbog should do something nice for a friend or a complete stranger, instead of paying for her mistake with buffing supplies.
Image credits: Julija Nėjė (not the actual photo)
Image credits: Slathbog
In a world where feel-good news is, in general, rare and few in between, Slathbog’s tale touched a nerve with the ‘Humans Being Bros’ community on Reddit. More than 67,000 Redditors upvoted Slathbog’s story and felt better about the world.
Also, over 650 Reddit users also left a comment; some of them even shared wholesome accident, scraping, and scratching stories of their own. This just goes to show that getting behind the wheel of a car doesn’t always have to end in road rage. Sometimes, things end in such a way that you start believing in humanity just a little more than you did yesterday. Or the day before.
As it turns out, Slathbog’s behavior is a great example of what to do if you accidentally scratch or hit somebody’s car in a parking lot. The News Wheel explains how you should opt for the high road if you’re ever in a situation like that. Your first instinct may be to drive away and avoid all responsibility, but you should do your best to steer away from acting like a Visigoth barbarian. Instead, be as responsible as a Roman.
Furthermore, you should track down the car-owner or leave a note if you can’t. Leave your contact details, but not sensitive information that you wouldn’t want random passersby to get their mitts on.
And remember to take photos of both vehicles, the note, as well as the damaged car’s license plate number, model, as well as other pertinent information. You never know, maybe the owner will send you a wholesome text message telling you to be kind to a complete stranger. Even if they don’t, you can sleep easy knowing that you did the right thing by taking responsibility for your actions.
Redditors shared their own wholesome car accident stories
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I was driving on a rainy night and a young lady (probably about 17 yrs old) lost traction and rear-ended me. I took a look and didn't see anything too bad (my car was a hoopty), but we exchanged numbers just in case. I get home and my bumper's a little dented, but NBD. I call and tell her to not worry about it. She asks if I can talk to her dad, because apparently he's been going ape s**t since she got home. I ended up telling him that my car is fine, to chill the f**k out, and go tell his daughter he loves her and he's glad she wasn't hurt. Priorities, man!
Only 12 upvotes and one of them was mine? This is a great story! Love!
A few years ago I stopped to help a young man whose car was stopped at a weird angle on a highway, two lanes in both directions with a barrier in between. It turned out that he had hit, and killed, a largish dog that had been crossing the road and suddenly appeared from the barrier in front of him. He was in a mess, his cellphone didn't work in that spot (hilly area, quite far from any town), but mine did so I helped him call his insurance company for a tow truck and I also called his parents. The guy was 19, the same age as my son, and I guess it was just mothering instincts that made me stay with him until his parents came. And was I glad that I stayed! I ended up getting really angry with his father who was blaming his son for the accident in a bad way instead of appreciating the fact that a burst radiator and some metalwork were absolutely nothing compared to the fact that his son had been really lucky to get out of this uninjured.
Driving to work, sitting at a red light on a minor slope the car and I feel a jolt. The young woman behind me had stopped on a pile of rock salt and her car drifted forward. She was really apologetic, I explained that I did not want to deal with insurance, I can't see any damage (on my 16 year old car) and told her to forget it. Later, I saw the tail light was cracked and a small piece fell out. Oh well. My mechanic replaced it for like $90, far less than the deductible and not dealing with insurance companies: Priceless.
I met the opposite the other day :( scraped past my car, I wound window down like hey u just hit my car, so he reversed against it and forward again, then took off :( sadly for him my car sits higher so I have a scraped bumper and misaligned headlight, his car was caved in and he couldnt put his window back up after he wound it down to cuss at me (it was raining). Thanks karma for sorting it out ^-^
Or you could end up with a psycho that now expects you to pay for repairs that you didnt cause..happened to me..in a company pick up, i merged left,heard a faint metal noise. Guy pulled over,i pulled over,. His car was so low that his mirror grazed my fender wall. No damage.. But he filed a police report and called the companies insurance wanting a new paint job and mirror..
My mother exchanged dirt with a woman in a crowded P.O. lot. Nothing even scratched. About a week later she got a call from her insurance--the woman was claiming an entire smashed front end! I told the nice man all she did was rearrange some mud--and I wondered out loud just what else the woman hit and how liquid her lunch had been. We heard no more about it. (But I still wonder...)
Awe...
I was driving on a rainy night and a young lady (probably about 17 yrs old) lost traction and rear-ended me. I took a look and didn't see anything too bad (my car was a hoopty), but we exchanged numbers just in case. I get home and my bumper's a little dented, but NBD. I call and tell her to not worry about it. She asks if I can talk to her dad, because apparently he's been going ape s**t since she got home. I ended up telling him that my car is fine, to chill the f**k out, and go tell his daughter he loves her and he's glad she wasn't hurt. Priorities, man!
Only 12 upvotes and one of them was mine? This is a great story! Love!
A few years ago I stopped to help a young man whose car was stopped at a weird angle on a highway, two lanes in both directions with a barrier in between. It turned out that he had hit, and killed, a largish dog that had been crossing the road and suddenly appeared from the barrier in front of him. He was in a mess, his cellphone didn't work in that spot (hilly area, quite far from any town), but mine did so I helped him call his insurance company for a tow truck and I also called his parents. The guy was 19, the same age as my son, and I guess it was just mothering instincts that made me stay with him until his parents came. And was I glad that I stayed! I ended up getting really angry with his father who was blaming his son for the accident in a bad way instead of appreciating the fact that a burst radiator and some metalwork were absolutely nothing compared to the fact that his son had been really lucky to get out of this uninjured.
Driving to work, sitting at a red light on a minor slope the car and I feel a jolt. The young woman behind me had stopped on a pile of rock salt and her car drifted forward. She was really apologetic, I explained that I did not want to deal with insurance, I can't see any damage (on my 16 year old car) and told her to forget it. Later, I saw the tail light was cracked and a small piece fell out. Oh well. My mechanic replaced it for like $90, far less than the deductible and not dealing with insurance companies: Priceless.
I met the opposite the other day :( scraped past my car, I wound window down like hey u just hit my car, so he reversed against it and forward again, then took off :( sadly for him my car sits higher so I have a scraped bumper and misaligned headlight, his car was caved in and he couldnt put his window back up after he wound it down to cuss at me (it was raining). Thanks karma for sorting it out ^-^
Or you could end up with a psycho that now expects you to pay for repairs that you didnt cause..happened to me..in a company pick up, i merged left,heard a faint metal noise. Guy pulled over,i pulled over,. His car was so low that his mirror grazed my fender wall. No damage.. But he filed a police report and called the companies insurance wanting a new paint job and mirror..
My mother exchanged dirt with a woman in a crowded P.O. lot. Nothing even scratched. About a week later she got a call from her insurance--the woman was claiming an entire smashed front end! I told the nice man all she did was rearrange some mud--and I wondered out loud just what else the woman hit and how liquid her lunch had been. We heard no more about it. (But I still wonder...)
Awe...