Adult reply FTW. Pick your battles. If your car was dented, politely and firmly ask him to pay for it. Damaging his car even worse is ultimately childish and asking for runaway escalation. Concealed carry (for either of you) could have made this day much worse for you, or even worse still, for your family. Peace. Be the bigger man.
I hate passive aggressiveness. That's a stupid female trait. If you have something to say then just say it.
I think you must be kidding. Drawing and firing on some unarmed dude in a parking lot will not end well for you. LOL. Christ Almighty, but people are crazy these days. Out of this thread. Peace to y'all and your testosterone poisoning and your dented car doors. LOL.
You can shoot an unarmed person if you feel for you life in many situations with our laws. Say someone pushes you or approaches you without warning and batters you (touching). It has nothing to do with armed or not, it's about perceived threat.
I guess I'm in the minority in saying that its pretty childish to just wreck your door into his after the fact. Kind of like throwing the Xbox controller when you lose. I never got those kind of people.... No offense meant at all, though.
If you barely felt your car get hit, chances are your vehicle sustained minor to no damage. Almost certainly not enough to even get it repaired, probably not enough to justify any effort getting this guy to pay for it, and definitely not enough to justify your reaction to what was very likely an accident. Bottom line - he's a careless hothead and you're lucky you didn't end up getting you or your family hurt over what, a little door ding? Sometimes the macho thing to do is walk away and not risk yourself or your family.
It always baffles me why posters feel the urge to admit to committing a crime on a message board. Bottom line is that the OP intentionally hit the other car and he pretty much confessed to it here. How is this discussion going to help you OP? It can only come back to haunt you. What if the other guy decides to call the police?
I see some reasonable answers but there was a low chance the douchebag was going to pay for the door dent. Do you wait for the cops then just for a door dent?
Wow, this gun talk is ridiculous. Can't believe that opening my door and accidentally hitting someone's car could end up with someone pointing a gun at me haha. Better remember that next time I'm in Texas!
So, since it's not possible for two drivers to hit each others car with their door unless one backed into the spot and the other went straight in, I'm going to guess that the truck driver was the one who backed in like a man. btw: I prefer never to park next to a truck. And I prefer to wait for the other party to exit their vehicle if I'm returning to leave. I guess the OP was chatting with the wife for awhile.
Appreciate the candid responses, even the ones resorting to personal name calling. Hey at least they're honest, which is why I wanted to poll you guys in the first place. I actually agree that I could have handled the situation a hundred different ways as it was irresponsible to react how I did. I've tapped someone's door once in the past, but never hard enough to make the other vehicle shake, which is why I erred on the side of deliberate vs accident when assuming his intention. Either way, the intent of my reaction was obvious. Judge Wapner would not have favored me in the courtroom. Lesson learned on my part. Was leaning that way even before posting. And just my $0.02, don't want to turn this into a debate on carrying, but I don't think escalating any situation like this to the point of firearms would ever be appropriate.
Even though it was hard what made you think it was deliberate? Why would your first thought be that a total stranger deliberately slammed his door into your car? I guess I just don;t understand the thought process. Could have been deliberate. Could have been careless. Could have been accidental. You chose the must extreme possibility to respond to.
You unnecessarily esclated the situation. It may have truly been an accident on his part. You are lucky he wasn't armed.
This wouldn't excuse the other guy's douchey behavior, but the only reason I can think of that he deliberately did it would be if OP parked ridiculously close to the truck with plenty of room on the other side.
