I suppose the main question in my mind is, if the person who damaged Hasbeen's car was aware of it, then why did s/he hang about if they were not prepared to make reparations? One would imagine that they would have bolted with the evidence once they'd felt the impact.

If by some weird chance they weren't aware of the extent, how would Hasbeen know if he didn't hang about - and how would it help Hasbeen's dilemma if he'd indulged in a little mild car park rage - which apparently he resisted?

Not car park rage, Poirot, simply teaching a lesson. Do unto others and all that.

The trouble is that some people simply seem unable to grasp that their actions have consequences. They're so used to getting away with minor infractions like opening their door into other people's cars that it's not even noticed when they do it.

Calling the police would only reinforce that, because they would not come.

After I closed my business I drove a truck for a while. It was a real eye-opener. There are a really large group of people who simply pay no attention to what is going on around them. They're not malicious, they simply don't care about how their activities affect others - they want to do what they want to do and everyone else can just put up with it.

It's a sort of narcissistic behaviour and it's incredibly prevalent in young women and in old men, although perhaps old men have the excuse that they're sensorily deficient and struggle to keep up with the flow of information.

And the other thing that puzzles me is that most here are fairly keen to damage the offending car as pay back....something which is only perhaps useful as a psychological mechanism, but which doesn't assist Hasbeen's material dilemma.

Picture the scene at the beach or at the sandpit. Junior has spent a whole hour constructing a whizz-bang sand castle. Along comes a playmate who decides to build one too - right beside Junior's impressive monument. Partway through the new construction, he inadvertently steps backwards, planting a foot squarely on the left turret of Juniors masterpiece, mashing it into oblivion. Now, understandably, Junior is bereft, he looks to the adults for guidance.

What do adults usually say to a small child in a case like this? Do they tell Junior that it was an accident and that his playmate should apologise and perhaps help him rebuild the turret - or do they tell Junior to make a bee-line for his playmate's castle and inflict equal damage as payback?

Strange old world.....

Poirot, your example of junior on the beach is well and good, but it's not relevant. Hasbeen's car is not a sandcastle that is ephemeral, the perosn who opened the door into it is not a child and they did not do it accidentally, they had evidence of having done it repeatedly, so at best they were wilfully careless.

In the case of the person who knocked my bike over, they were trying to run away after having caused significant damage to someone else's property, hoping it had not been seen being caused. One of the things that I was taught and I have tried to teach my kids is that you should take responsibility for your own actions. If you break someone else's toy, don't try to hide it and pretend someone else must have done it. Own up and try to do what you can to make amends.

Far too many people in our present society have not learnt that lesson. Swift retribution, which is what they should have got as kids when they behaved badly, is the only way they will.

It should be possible to rely on the police to provide that, but it clearly isn't, so what's left?

It's just a car man!

Jeez. If my car gets dints, I drive it around with dints. It still works. Nothing cracks me up more than people with those fock-ugly perspex stone chip protectors on the front of their cars. It's genius; I'll make my car look ugly, in case a stone may chip it a little bit that might blemish it slightly.

If your ego, status, masculinity, whatever, is defined by how nice and clean and shiny your car looks you've got big problems.

Who knows, maybe their kid got out that side and they didn't even realise. Maybe they're an oldie living in constant pain from a war injury and found it hard to get out of their car, and are hard of hearing and sight. People can be doddery, just look at most of the posters on here.

But, no, nothing less than an over the top retribution will suffice.

'They're not malicious, they simply don't care about how their activities affect others - they want to do what they want to do and everyone else can just put up with it.'

That's your projection onto the other. You don't have any proof except what you want to believe. Someone cuts you off in traffic, and you build a whole profile on the personality of the person, filling it up with all your prejudices. Besides, they're not malicious, but you're bloody well going to be? Teach-em a lesson? Righteous one?

Y'all should watch that movie Crash. I feel sorry for a world of people so full of hate and fear and anger. In the most privileged and pampered place on earth.

A slight annoyance, an accident, a bit of carelessness, to a material possession brings about an explosion of rage. Get a sense of proportion guys. Some people have their kids dying of cancer and really don't have the physical or emotional energy to deal with a little scratch on your car.

Nope, not projection, houellie, observation. The person who refuses to get out of the way of an ambulance; the person who blocks a left turning lane for 5 minutes because they want to get across to the right hand lane in one go when there is a perfectly clear left hand lane available to turn into; the person who blocks a left turn lane by parking a long way from the car in front and won't move forward regardless of the horn-blowing behind them; the person who sits texting at every red light and has to finish what they're doing before moving off, blocking all the cars behind; the person who sits in the right hand lane of the motorway doing 80; the person who weaves in and out of heavy traffic, causing people behind to have to brake and creating a wave of braking that goes all the way down the line; the person who has a minor tailender and won't move their car off the roadway; the person who has a minor tailender and must call emergency services, thereby creating even more chaos. I could go on for pages.

These are all examples of the type of behaviour I mean. How would you characterise it?

Sure, it's only a car, but in the case of my bike it cost nearly $300 just to make it rideable and I had to get it carried home on a towtruck, which cost another $100. If I hadn't stopped the fat fool with that can of beans, I'd have had to pay that myself. As it was he quickly offered to pay and he also had the cost of a window to remind him to be more careful in future.

I reckon that's a pretty good result.