It sucks that there are people that don't feel accountable if they do something "by accident". They still screwed up, and should at least offer to fix any damage they may have caused. If there was no damage, at least offer an apology. Accidents don't excuse accountability. Best choice probably would've been to just let it go...too many crazies out there. You could have gotten their vehicle ID, but I don't know if calling law enforcement would have done anything about a door ding. The store has no accountability, your insurance would collect your deductible if you would just file, the guy just leaves....not much you can really do. Dinging him back feels pretty good as playground justice has been dealt, and that's what some people understand. However, obviously, this escalated the whole situation. It is a natural knee jerk reaction, I think, although something that is causing you to evaluate your reaction in hindsight I get the feeling that you want to know if its ok to just allow something like this to happen, look the other way, and avoid a confrontation. Oddly, part of me feels like your wife being there may have escalated your decision to react like you did so as not to show weakness. Maybe I'm way off. Glad the end result wasn't violence. There is just too much at risk. How did your wife react to the situation? What did she have to say about how you handled it?
Certainly can appreciate that you would be upset having your door whacked like that. I would think the majority of the time that this happens it's done by accident or by not paying attention. Either way is messed up. That said, in this case, YOU made a HUGE mistake. You had know idea who this person was (and what they're capable of), and you're going to slam your door into his WITH YOUR KIDS IN THE FREAKIN CAR thus possibly putting them in danger? GROW THE HELL UP!!!! There's so many freakin crazy people out there, and with your kids in the car, my friend you messed up. Learn from this moving forward. This whacko could have got out of his car, popped a cap in your ass and drove off. Now your kids don't have a dad, but this stuff never happens......right?
I'm guessing el toro finds himself in fights quite often. If you are that quick to anger I feel bad for you.
While this is true, it appeared the OP did not even give the guy an opportunity to apologize when he chose to slam his door into the offender's car in retaliation. That maneuver changed the whole dynamic of the situation.
what did the OP expect was going to happen when he intentionally slammed his door into the other car? "touche brother, good one! well, have a nice day" of course that was going to set him off. the funniest part is OP felt the need to report the other guy to the police, LOL. if anyone here has police reporting privileges, the other guy has first dibs.
Why didn't you stand your ground and kill him? He disrespected you, what that fool thanking?! KEEPS IT REAL B
"No no don't do it again, we're even now!" Then they keep swapping increasingly harder door slams into each other for the next 10 minutes, while their wives roll their eyes, kids in the back seat "come on dad, we're starving!"
How so. If the other guy was engaging, he is at fault. If he threatens to harm him, those are terroristic threats.
I don't think you understand what sorts of behavior qualify as terroristic threats in Texas. The crime is almost never charged. The offense itself is moronically named. Regardless, OP committed criminal mischief by slamming his door into the other guy's car. The guy likely wouldn't be convicted of anything because his "terroristic threats" were in response to OP's conduct in escalating the situation.
Oh I see. you can save the rolleyes. I was in a parent conference with a parent early in my career. His kid got a discipline referral and he cane in. During the conference, he didn't like that his son got a referral and in his frustration, told me he would kick my ass. I informed him the conference was over, informed my principal, he called in the police, and he was charged with making a terroristic threat. We ended up in court, he was charged, he could not pay so he was assigned community service. When the parent said that it didn't really mean it, the judge said that it didn't matter how he meant it, what mattered was how I perceived it. Now, I admit that i don't know what was said and can only assume that the guy threatened to kick the OP's ass. I'm just speaking from my experience.
SHame on El Toro. Had an incident where I came out of a restaurant and saw a huge dent on my vehicle. Looked closely at the vehicle next to me and saw paint from my vehicle on their door edge. Took a few pictures of the accident and their license plate. Proceeded to walk back into the restaurant and literally asked everyone if this was their vehicle. Finally found the owner and it happened to be some kid who opened the door with all his might to put that huge dent on my car. He might have apologized, I don't even remember. All I did was ask his mother for her insurance info. She wanted to settle it outside of insurance, but I wasn't having it. Got my vehicle fixed, looks the same prior to the accident and her insurance got dinged $500. Just because someone did some bad onto you, doesn't mean you have to stoop down to their level. Now you have a dinged up vehicle that you'll have to pay out of pocket to repair. At least give the other person a chance to apologize and resolve the situation instead of escalating it. If he tried to blow you off, then I would retort to such tactics that would make us "even". What he did was an accident and what you did was on purpose. Two different intents and you handled the situation horribly.
El Toro, I haven't read the thread to see if anyone has told you or not, but the way you reacted to this situation was wrong and you are most likely going to BURN IN HELL FOR ALL ETERNITY.
If I accidentally did that and if someone tried to get revenge by doing it on purpose, it would be very hard to not beat that person's ass.
Wow read the first post. So he possibly hit your door on accident then you with your family inside decide to be macho and hit his on purpose?
Yeah I see people get charged with terroristic threat all the time. At least in Brazoria co. it's actually a pretty wide range of "threats" they're accused of that result in this charge. Now I wouldn't pretend to know state wide stats, but it's a pretty common charge here anyway.
The horse is dead, beaten to a bloody, wrangled pulp, re-animated and shot again by a Colt Python. I get the frustration in the responses; most are placing themselves in the point-of-view of the Chevy Silverado driver and assuming accidental door bang, because normal people wouldn’t intentionally hit someone’s car without provocation. I would have liked to assume that intent at the time, but didn’t because of several factors: vehicles were parked facing opposite directions, Silverado driver approaches from in front of me, clear line-of-sight, hears my engine idling, gets to his door by walking past mine and had to have known that occupants are in the car. Don’t know about you, but when I’m opening my door and know someone’s inside the car next to mine, I go out of my way to not make any contact, even more than usual. He proceeds to swing open his door with enough force to shake the small-size SUV I’m in, starts his engine. At this point, my assumptions were leaning towards deliberate, and even if accidental then with the intent to drive off. I should have gotten out and attempted to get his insurance but reacted in another way, mea culpa, lesson learned, move on a better man, etc…
