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.

You say you heard something but didn't feel any impact, which means it's more likely you ran over something than hit the car. Even a very gentle impact tends to feel quite dramatic. You couldn't miss it.

However you need to cover yourself by reporting what happened to your insurance company and the police. Be clear that you left the scene because you were intimidated but also that you don't think you did hit the car. Let the police and insurance deal with it. If you decide to ignore it you risk this coming back on you and if you didn't in fact do anything wrong that wouldn't be fair.

Why did you say the crunch must have been from underneath your car when you'd already seen some paint scraped off your own car .

I was in a car park and watched someone drive into a space, crumple the bumper of the car in the next space with accompanying loud noise, which then popped back out and left no trace at all... I was gobsmacked!!

Yeah i think you ran over something, glass or a can or something like that.

If you'd hit the car behind you would have felt the impact even at a slow speed.

He was a total dickhead and I don't blame you for leaving. Did you get any details, name, car reg number or anything? If you have i would report on 101.

Sorry but sounds like you’re in the wrong! You heard a crunch and sounds like you hit him. Some damage isn’t immediately visible. You tried to walk away without giving details which is a stupid move! I’d have been pissed off with you too!

No damage, no need to report it but even if you do, it doesn't have to be there and then.

The crunch could easily be a bit of stone/something on the ground being crunched under a tyre or popping out from under a tyre. We often park on a gravelly carpark that does this.

OP - you should have given your details, and taken photos of your car and his and then left. You were unreasonable not to do that, however if he was intimidating and it sounds like physically trying to prevent you from leaving was pretty intimidating, I can understand why you didn't hang around.

Just because there was no visible damage to the car you don’t know what it could of done to the underneath or anything under the bonnet, that’s why you swap details, just in case, you should of asked for his badge number so that you can report it yourself, if he was a genuine copper he would of gave you it had you of asked

filming you with his phone sounds dodgy
being an arse, well it could go either way but i would imagine they are not police

and what would be the point of him filming you?

you can report this online. say you didnt exchange details as you felt intimidated by the 2 men on a quiet country road. include photos of your car

Wayne Couzens...

I don’t understand why you didn’t give him your details after you hit his car. It’s not up to you to decide if there’s no damage.
Should have taken picture and exchanged details.
I wonder how many other cars you’ve backed into and driven away after.

And again, OP could have phone it in when she got home.

Imo you were completely in the wrong! You heard a noise and clearly so did he. You then refused to give him your details, id be fuming if someone did that and then refused to give me their details! You made the situation far worse than it needed to be.

I reversed into someone once. No visible damage to either car. But I exchanged details anyway.

I had written her car off. Twisted the chassis. I couldn't believe it so went down to the garage her car had been taken to, and saw the damage for myself.

So quite apart from the fact that he was correct, you do have to exchange details in a collision - the reason you do this is because not all damage is visible, as I learned to my cost.

I expect he got aggy because you were trying to drive away after clearly hitting his car, without giving your details. YABVU.

That sounds awful and scary, how dare they be so intimidating to you OP! Horrible, you must have been really shaken up.

Bemused at PPs assuming police cannot possibly be an aggressive, abusive dickhead!

Such personalities are over-represented in the force. Weak egos.

No, it is relevant because we shouldn't automatically trust someone just because they are or are claiming to be a police officer

and it is hard to believe there were two belligerent officers together

I agree. If the guy wasn't police, he's committed an offence by pretending he was and if he was police, he should bloody well know better than to intimidate a woman alone like that.

You could have rang 999 with their police badges and asked them to confirm that they were genuine.

Yes, she should have. But I was answering why she would not have given it at the time. I

Even if there are no visible signs you hit the car you should have given details over, not all damage can be seen just by looking at the car. A colleague at work had someone tap her car in the carpark not hard just a slight touch, looked fine, 2 days later her back window shattered as she was driving when checked there was damage underneath also.

I don't think you understand. Your reason would apply equally to men and women. Whatever the expected reaction, men are statistically more likely to be abusive or violent.

To sum it up in its entirety, Wayne Couzens is the reason.

We will never know if the OP phoned her insurers or the police.