I've got myself into a sticky situation

[Helbel1977]

I've got myself into a sticky situation, i know im in the wrong but I don't know how to fix it.

Yesterday morning about 10.30am I was nipping out to the shops, when I pulled out my drive I bumped into a car parked opposite, i was moving at a slow speed and didn't notice any damage to the car I went into.

When I returned the car was gone, fine I thought nothing more about it.
I didn't mention it to my husband.

Later on a young man came to my door my husband answered it, he told him that his girlfriend was staying over last night and her car was parked outside, he said that there was damage to her car and wanted to know if we had seen anything, obviously he told him no as he hadn't know anything about it. He did tell my husband that it must happened between late the night before and when she left at 9am, They must have got the times wrong as I hit the car about 10.30. I just played dumb and agreed that it was terrible.

I know I should own up, but I don't know how to go about it,

I suspect they have you on camera and were giving you a chance to own up (like a normal adult) before they go to the police and insurance.

Thanks everyone, Just to answer a few questions, I reversed into it by the boyfriends account there is a dent in the drivers side door which would probably coincide with where I hit it, I did not get out to look, i just observed from my car and didn't see and dent.

Im going to have to come clean, i just feel so stupid that I've let it go this far. I barely slept last night.

You cannot say yes it was me as it was a different time and may have been a different car! Then you’ll be responsible for a big bill for the wrong car! You’ve already said no, so I’d leave it now. Once I clipped a wing mirror but there was no damage so left. If you’ve checked and it was not damaged then that’s fine, stop worrying about it!

Nobody has ever come and told me they have hit my car, I have always just found the damage.
If it was your car that had been knocked nobody would be giving it this much thought.

Do you remember the make, model, colour, anything about the car you hit? If so ask the man what type of car his girlfriend has and see if it fits.

It sounds like you didn’t hit her car at all if the times and location of the damage are wrong

You didn't let it go this far. It only happened yesterday and you didn't say to the man that you didn't do it. Your husband did.
So what you do is go and speak to the man and say that your husband told you he came round and ask more details about the car. If it matches the one you hit, then you come clean.
How you come clean to your husband is another matter...

Just tell your husband you were embarrassed and confess to the boyfriend. It’s too much of a coincidence for it to be another car.

I’d agree if they were unsure of the timings. I’d be checking the details of the car match before admitting to anything.

You need to tell them what happened. You can tell them the timing and say you think you bumped a different car and couldn’t see any damage but you thought it best to tell them in case it was her car you hit. When i hit a parked car, i left a note and contact details under the windscreen wiper. There was visible damage, mind you.

I would confess but at the same time tell him the timings don’t match up. My thoughts are, you don’t know who’s got a doorbell camera and caught the footage of you hitting the other vehicle. If that’s reviewed and you get identified you’ll look bad for not owning up. Best to be honest, sorry!

Happened to me but my car was parked. We only noticed the impact several hours later when we returned to the vehicle and knocked on all doors and everyone denied it, including the person that did it. We gave out our number and a few hours later they called and owned up.

Does he or anyone near have a ring doorbell? He might already know it was you.

You need a story to save face. Could you say when they came round you weren't well/had something going on and weren't thinking properly? As long as you sort it out that will be their priority. You just need something to say that isn't "I lied".

Why can't you just say that her husband answered the door and she hadn't told him yet? That's what actually happened.

I bumped into a neighbour’s car as I reversed out. They didn’t normally park there and I just didn’t see the car.

I was going to collect my DC from school but I still messaged them straight away. They’d seen it on their ring camera! 🤦‍♀️🤣

They were really nice about it and of course, I offered to pay. They said they weren’t bothered about it.

There was minimal damage, btw.

We get on really well and help each other out.

Absolutely! Why do people advise lying?
Just tell the truth.

If I was the owner of the car, I’d then ask why I was being told now and not at the time it happened.

True, she should have stopped and knocked on the door or at least left a note.

All she can say to that is that she didn’t think there was any damage.

What do you think she should say?

If she left at 9am then it wasn’t the car you hit. If that’s the time she goes to work then they haven’t got the time wrong. Are you sure it was 10.30? It could all be coincidental

100% this. You made a mistake, it’s not the end of the world because your husband spoke to the man and not you. But don’t let it go any further, it will just cause you more worry and stress.
You didn’t think there was damage but you should have checked thoroughly and left a note. Don’t let one mistake spiral.

What I would expect her to say is “sorry, I should have told you, here are my insurance details”.

Someone scraped along the side of my car when I was parked at work. A really long nasty scrape it was. They must have done a terrible bit of parking coz when I saw the damage I could barely work out how they'd done it. Must have come in at a terrible angle. They left a note with details on my windsceeen and came back when I called. I said it was decent of them to own up . The slightly odd thing was that a man came back but he said it was his wife who'd done it. I think I remember getting her insurance details but she was nowhere to be seen. It was all a bit odd.

I had this happen to me, we worked out who had hit my car, police not interested

I did this. A tiny scratch that was hardly noticeable on the bumper. Because it was my neighbour, I left a note and owned up immediately as I was on my way out. Had a conversation later, he told me not to worry, it was booked in for other repairs anyway and the bumper was being replaced as part of the works.

The arsehole then claimed for ALL the work on my insurance. £5000!!!! I told the insurance company, provided photographic evidence of the tiny scratch.

They told me to just let it go.

It was 5 years ago, I’m still LIVID.