Unpleasant altercation - who was the most unreasonable?

[zerofeeling]

Took my dogs out today and was trying to park in a small space between two cars on a country lane. As I was inching back to fit into the space I heard a loud crunch 😖

The two men from the car behind had just set off on their walk, as I got out of my car one of them was heading back towards me shouting why did I try to park in such a small space. I said sorry and inspected the front of his car - couldn't see any damage at all, and apart from a tiny paint scuff nothing on my car. I said to him 'i can't see any damage, it doesn't look like I hit you'
Man just glanced over at his car then asked me for my details, I asked is that necessary and said again there's no damage. He said that's not the point you have to give your details if you've been in a collision. He was much taller than me and sort of fronting up to me repeating that he wanted my details and me refusing, saying I don't think it was a collision, I think I might have hit something underneath my car. (For info my Mum and a friend have both been scammed on their insurance by people who claimed all kinds of things after very minor prangs)

Then he took an ID wallet out of his pocket and flipped it open to show a photo and badge and said he's Police. I couldn't tell if it was genuine or not. He held his phone up and said he's filming me refusing to comply with the law.
By this time the other man had come back and also filming me and I started to worry - I'm in a secluded area, with two men who are much bigger than me. I told them I felt intimidated and are they trying to scam me?

I got in my car and tried to shut the door but 1st man held onto it to prevent me. I asked if he's trying to detain me and he said no but I will if you don't give me your details, I've identified myself to you as a police officer. I said you've got no right to detain me. Eventually he let go of the door and I had to turn the car round as the lane is a dead end. Once I turned round he said again that I'm breaking the law by refusing to give my details after a collision and he started to recite the Caution they give when you're arrested! I drove away very shaken up, no idea what consequences to expect.

I appreciate that and of course I know it’s not the same as what happened to that poor woman. My point was that men can be intimidating and I would have reacted the same as the OP in those circumstances BUT I would have gone straight to the nearest station and reported it. He flashed a card at her and she describes him bearing down on her. I am probably sensitive to this as I’ve had to report a police officer to the IOPC and I have an ingrained mistrust of them now unfortunately.

You did the right thing and made sure you were safe. If they were really cops all they would need to do is read your license plate to get your info, yet it sounds like they didn't do that. It's the first thing a real cop would do.
I'd say they were scammers.

Except she could see no damage and nobody actually saw her hit the car, nor did she feel an impact by the sound of it. The noise could have been from running over something made of metal.

It could easily be a scam. Picture this; they place something metal in the spot and wait for somebody to park and run over it. Then they claim the person hit their car, demand personal info and pull out fake badges. If they manage to get the details they would then offer to forget the incident if they get paid whatever sum they are looking to get. Bonus is if they have your details they can try identity theft.
There are all kinds of similar scams. One popular one is standing in the middle of the road, doing a fake fall if a car comes close and then claiming they were hit, but they won't call police if you pay them.

How did you get on with the IOPC if you don't mind me asking?

Indeed.

Nowhere does she say anyone looked under the car for an object, so where did you get the impression it vanished?

There are a lot of made up details coming from the YABU folks. Maybe they feel they have to justify their vote so they invent things that the OP never said?

How they acted was fucked up in terms of not letting you in your car..but you should’ve given your details if you hit his car, without question. Not all damage is visible.

The thing that a lot of people don't seem to realize is that you cannot use a mere sound to claim there was a collision. You have to see it happen and/or feel the impact. Neither seems to be the case here. Ask your insurance agent and they'll surely tell you the same, that you don't have a claim on the other driver based just on a sound.

Perhaps I'm using the word scam in a different way to other people? I meant really that he might try to claim for damage that hadn't happened. Anyway, as it turns out they are both Police so it's even worse than scamming imo, it's abuse of his position.

In that case I'd file a complaint. By holding the door he attempted to detain you when you were not under arrest.

Yes I was advised to do that by the decent posters on here so I did it online via 101 and followed it up the next day.

How they reacted was an abuse of power, regardless of the situation.
Being police, they certainly have the means to report an incident and trace you. They did not have to go to the lengths they did to intimidate you.
2 men Vs 1 woman. In what works is this ok?

As it stands you contacted 101 regarding the situation, it's on file that you interpreted the situation differently and it will be dealt with accordingly.

The advice since Sarah is any situation you feel uncomfortable in and are not sure if someone is police to call 999 and have it clarified.

They are not allowed to do that for personal situations

@Fraggeek I really wish I'd called Police as soon as I'd got far enough away but I started to undermine myself, thinking they would say I'd overreacted and basically it was my fault. Going by the majority of comments on here most people would have agreed with that!

🤔

How did you manage to ascertain they are police officers if you didn’t exchange details?

Click on "See all" in any of the OP's posts to see what she's posted in the thread.

Presumably they've been in touch with the OP after she drove away from an accident.

FFS What complete and utter bollocks some people write on here.
Read the op's posts, she didn't know that they weren't looking for a woman to attack.

Nor are they allowed to attempt to detain her by holding onto her car door but one of them did that.

Someone called James writing "stupid woman." Hmmm......

Someone reversed into the side of me coming out of a parking space once, the noise was awful but there was no damage to either car. It was weird but he absolutely hit me. I didn't bother taking his details as there was zero marks and he jumped out apologising straight away. Just saying, it can make a loud noise even with no sign of impact.

I will update with that later on.