[geeks] Stupid people rant

[Kurt Huhn]

> See, this is what upset me. The money is no big deal to me at all, but this
> guy was a complete jackass about the whole deal.  I tried to be nice, but

Along the same lines, but unrelated to eBay, I had an interesting
experience on Monday that culminated on Friday afternoon.

Monday Morning I was headed to the office in Providence, RI headed north
on Eddy St (RI'rs know where this is).  Well, at a particularly
constricted intersection, someone pulled out of a gas station two cars
in front of me - forcing all three of us to slam on the brakes.  I swear
the hand of $HIGHER_BEING came down and stopped me, because tehre is no
way I should have stopped in time to avoid crushing the Honda in front
of me.  I figured all was weel for a split second, until I felt a
vibration come up through the floor of the truck.

Obviously, I had been rear-ended.  So I continued through the
intersection, pulled over to the side of the road, and got out of the
truck.  A woman in an early '90s Mercury Sable (with more rust than
paint) pulls over and gets out.  The ensuing conversaation went like
this:
Me: I'm going to need your insurance information
Her: Do we have to get the insurance comapnies involved?
Me: Well, I'm going to need my truck fixed.
Her: Can't I just give you cash?
Me: (making a judgement based on appearance and dress) I don't think you
have that much on you right now.
Her: Well how much could it be?
Me: (looking at bumper and trailer hitch) I'm guessing about $1500.
Her: Well can't I give you payments?
Me: No.  Really, I need your insurance information.
Her: I can give you $200 a month.
Me: Are you kidding me with this?  I need your insurance info, now.
Her: Well, I think it got cancelled.
Me: Then I'm going to call the police.
Her: Well, maybe it didn't...
Me: So, do you have insurance or not?
Her: Well, I do - but it might be cancelled.
Me: Okay, I'm calling the Providence Police...(dialing)
Her: This is a setup!
Me: (finish giving location to dispatcher and hang up) What?
Her: You planned this!  Just to get my money!
Me: Excuse me? (Normally I would have a snappy comeback, but was so
taken off-guard I had nothing to say)
Her: You and that lady pulled out are working together!  You'r just
trying to get my money!
Me: Ummmm.  I don't want your money.  I want my truck fixed...
Her: You planned this, it's a setup, I'm going to prove it!
Me: Ok.  If you say so.  If I were you, I'd have your registration and
license ready for the police.
Her: (shouting to nobody) He set this up!  He made me hit him!
[here I'm thinking of the scene from Monty Python's Quest For The Holy
Grail - "she's a witch!".  I also notice a dog running around the front
seat of the car, and things suddenly become clear as to why she hit me. 
She later referes to this dog as "the baby"]
Her: (comes back over to me) There's not even any damage to your truck!
Me: I don't think you're qualified to make that statement.
Her: Are you calling me a retard?
Me: what?
Her: Are you saying I'm an idiot?
Me: If I had to make an estimation of your mental capacities, based on
what I see before me right now, I might be forced to draw conclusinos
that aren't in line with your actual...
Her: (interupting) I'm going to prove you did this on purpose!
Me: Okay, give it a shot...

And it goes on like this for 20 minutes - no shit.  It took the cops 20
minutes to get there, and she went on with wild accusations about a
consipiracy the entire time.  I didn't think anything about it, I went
home, called my insurance agent, and reported the accident.  The agent,
which is a freind of ours, took it from there.  I expected nothing more
until someone wrote a check to fix the truck.

On Friday afternoon, I get a call from an adjuster with my insurance
company. The adjuster starts off by appologizing for haveing to pass
this info along, then proceeds to relate the story.  In the course of
this phone call I discover that this woman does indeed have insurance,
but the adjuster had to go on a quest to find what company.  Apparently,
the other driver is in the RI Assigned Risk Pool - bad news for her, but
good for me.  At least she has insurance.  Anyway, it also comes out
that my adjuster spent 20 minutes onthe phone with this woman, who
called *my* insurance comapny to file a claim against *me* for forcing
her to hit me.  [still stunned]

Apparently, my 5000lb truck ran into a car about the size of a Nissan
Sentra, bouced off of it and went backwards, hitting this womans car
behind me. [boggle]  Then, I apparently tried to drive away, and leave
the scene of the accident.  [wibble]

So, I bounced off the Sentra, didn't go over it, didn't plow through
it?  Yes, apparently.  So where is the mystery Sentra?  Not damaged
apparently.  The woman in the car drove away.

I still don't have a snappy comeback for this.  Luckily the adjuster
with my insurance company has basically written this woman off as
certifiable, and is handling the case from here on out.  I did, however,
have to call this womans insurance company and open a claim with them -
as this woman never reported the accident to here insurance company -
tsk, tsk...

What bothers me the most, isn't the the fact that her story changed
between the police report and when she called my insurance company.  It
isn't that her relation of the events in either version of her story
isn't even close to what actually happened.  It sn't that I'm being
accused of setting up an accident. (Okay, this sort of bothers me, I
mean - give me credit.  If I'm going to setup an accident I'm going to
do so with someone of obvious wealth.)  What really bothers me is the
complete an total disregard for the laws of physics.  Really.  I 5000lb
truck bounced off of a Sentra, and did no damage?!  Yet destroyed the
front end of a Mercury Sable while travelling backwards after bouncing?

Stupid people really suck....

Kurt