Parking is Tight in Houston

This happened directly across the street from my house. I heard the crash about 2:00 AM but since it woke me up I was not sure what I had really heard. I looked out my window of my bedroom but due to the leaves on the trees I could not see what happened. Hearing no screams or ambulances, etc., I just went back to sleep.

About 5:00 AM I was awakened by the sound of wrecker trucks. So, I decided to get dressed and go down and see what was up. Wrecker driver said that he got a "major wreck" call and an ambulance had come but left since no one injured was there. Cops showed up a little later and so did the guy whose car it was. His story was that he had been driving down the street with his lights off and did not see the parked car. He insisted he did not "leave the scene of an accident" but had to go home (he lives in same block on Sul Ross which is parallel to my street) to get a "piece of paper" to write down his name and address to leave on car he hit.

Here is what I say... YEAH RIGHT!

Dude was probably drunk. Left a bar without turning on his lights. Headed home and got confused about which street to turn off of Shepherd onto and turned 3 streets too early (or late). Maybe moved over to the right when he saw an oncoming car and SMACK, hit the parked car. Decided he did not want to hang around for the cops to give him a DUI, so headed home and waited 3 hours to sober up and then called the cops about the accident.

Apparently either the cops did not see through his ruse or maybe just could not arrest him on the suspicion of being drunk, so they let him off. They briefly "cuffed and stuffed" him, but ultimately let him go. I guess since no one was hurt, they did not want to jail him for just leaving the scene of an accident. His car was towed, but not the car that got hit. I went back to sleep and by the time I got up, the other car was gone. The cops told me that the car that was hit did not belong to anyone living in the neighborhood (at least according to the license plate check).

Later on I found out that that this was not the case. The Volvo that was hit belongs to one of my neighbors. He lost a rear bumper but I think the car was still drivable. Honda vs. Volvo: Advantage Volvo!

Moral to the story: Don't park your car on the street in Houston.