OLD BITCH IN THE PARKING LOT

I had my kids out the other day. It was me, my 3 year old son and 20 month old girl. I had just parked my Explorer outside a discount store. Non-compete clauses invoked by CBS equals frequent visits to discount stores. It was raining, so I was glad I found a good spot not too far from the doors. I had just gotten out of the car and had Jack's door open, was about to unbuckle him, when the entire car lurched with a loud BANG.

A car had been backing out of a space and ran right into my back bumper. This was no tap.

The car starts driving away. I close my son's door and run alongside then in front of the car, yelling for it to stop. Wouldn't you know it. 85 year old looking woman driver. Once she stops I walk to her window where she's already got her excuse ready. It's important to point out that she KNEW she hit me and was driving off anyway. She knew she hit me because before I could say anything she says, "Oh, the back window is broke and doesn't roll down anymore so I didn't see ya - "

I cut her off with something about it not mattering; that she hit my car and was running away.
I would submit if you have to lower a glass window to see, perhaps you shouldn't be driving.
At this point her eyes narrowed and she dropped her I'm-just-a-poor-sweet-old-grandma-so-you-have-to-feel-sorry-for-me bullshit.

"And you're gonna make a big stink about it!?" she says to me. I hadn't even looked at my car yet, but the point was she knew she hit me and she was going to leave the scene!

I tell her damn right I'm going to, that I'm going to call the cops since she was taking off. I then went to look at my car and she got out to survey it with me. I could not believe, with how hard our car rocked, that there was no visible damage. It was one of those things where the bumpers just lined up perfectly and took it just right. So she sees no damage then says to me, "And what are you going to show them?"

I knew exactly what she was getting at. It was more in her body language than what she'd said. "So if I call a cop out here what are you saying? That you're going to lie and say you never hit me?"

This old, twisted bitch says, "Exactly."

At this point, with my kids out of earshot still tucked in the car, I called her a few choice words, and she gets in her car and arrogantly starts to drive off. Now the rain is coming down hard. I had her plate number. I could have called. Maybe I should have called. But it's raining, I have a 3 year old and a 20 month old who would get crankier by the minute as we'd sit around and wait. And I can imagine in the end nothing would have been done about this old bat. We are seeing more an more movement towards bigger easier to read road signs and wider traffic lanes all to accommodate people who should instead be dealt with harshly. I suppose what bothered me most about all this is many of us have this image of the poor doddering old driver who doesn't even know the havoc they're causing and can only see their independence slipping away. But here was a woman who was probably a bitch when she was 25, still a bitch whe she was 45, still at 65 and even now when she was 85, and who couldn't physically handle driving any longer but was mentally still with it enough to know right from wrong. And chose wrong over right.