'Why'd you run?' Bronx college student looks for driver who hit his parked car
The collision caused an estimated $5,000 in damage.
A Williamsbridge resident says he has spent three weeks doing everything he can think of to find the driver who hit his car when it was parked at the corner of Vireo Avenue and East 239th Street in Woodlawn.
"My entire bumper was just completely taken off. I was confused, angry, upset," says Cristian Rodriguez.
The feelings only increased after Rodriguez found Ring camera video from a neighbor, showing not just the collision, but the driver parking, getting out of the car, taking some pictures of the damage and then just driving away without leaving a note.
"I'm very much capable of forgiveness, I'm a God-fearing man," Rodriguez says, "But why'd you run? We could have just handled this off the books."
Rodriguez says he only has liability insurance, which does not cover him in situations like this, where he gets hit.
Auto shops told him it would cost around $5,000 to fix the damage, so he was forced to just zip-tie the bumper together.
Rodriguez says that since it still scrapes on the bottom when he drives, he has had to take the train and then walk from his home in the Bronx to college at Pace University in Westchester and to work at the Westchester Mall.
"I love my car, I use it as my therapy," he said. "A part of alleviating my stress, I go for a midnight drive - I haven't been able to do that."
Rodriguez did file a police report, and the NYPD tells News 12 they are investigating. But since there is no way to read the driver's plate number in the Ring video, Rodriguez says the feedback he got at the precinct was not very promising.
"Police officers, in their words, (said), 'We don't follow up with stuff like this, it's a property crime.'" Rodriguez said. "It makes me feel hopeless.
If he needs to, Rodriguez says he will hire a private investigator to find the driver, but for the moment, he has had no choice but to start saving up to pay for the repairs himself.
"I've started to understand why people really don't like the police," he said. "God forbid if this was a captain's car that was hit, he'd have all his resources on it."
