Perhaps there was a good reason her mom was unsympathetic. Tough love?

I sometimes wonder if I'm really doing someone a favor by bailing them out. I was sitting in the minivan with the kids in the back waiting for my wife to finish shopping when suddenly the whole van lurched. I looked behind me and saw a girl back up her car and then pull into the empty spot on my right.

I got out and walked around the front of my car, dreading what I'll see. I saw the left front fender of the other car was all smasked up - dread increases. When I looked at the right rear corner of my car I didn't see any damage. I looked closer and finally found a scuff on my tire where she had clipped it with the corner of her bumper.

She was apologetic but didn't seem as flustered as I'd expected. I told her there was no damage, so don't worry about it, but to please be more careful in the future. She left to do her shopping.

As I was standing there feeling relieved, I took another look at her car. ALL FOUR CORNERS were smashed up. This was not simply a case of an old beat up car, it had been systematically beat up by someone who is incapable of swinging into a parking space without bouncing off the surrounding cars.

I was lucky, but perhaps if I should have called the police, if only to put her one small step closer to losing her license and making the world a safer place.

- Tom