gmmandrade

Has this ever happened to you, or do you have any idea what this could be about?

Saturday night we get a message on our answering maching from a NY State Trooper (we live in Stamford, CT - about 8 miles from NY border) asking us to call him back about an "accident on Friday night around 10pm involving our vehicle, a 2003 Lexus (our other, non-BMW, ride) ". Strange because we had been driving the BMW Friday night, not the Lex, and the Lexus hadn't been anywhere near NY state for several days. Plus, it was sitting in our garage, undamaged.....

Anyway, we finally got a hold of the trooper Sunday night, and he asked us to come down to the State Police "shack" in Larchmont NY (about 15 miles from our house), so he could check out the car. He says someone claims our vehicle had rear-ended theirs. We drove down to Larchmont, the trooper stepped outside, took one look at the intact and pristine front of the car, and realized there obviously was nothing to the claim. He apologized, and then gave us an escort through town, since we'd no idea how to get back on the road....

What's particularly wierd is that the trooper claims the accident was a serious rear-ending, such that the our car should've been pretty damaged, and that the "victim" had given a description matching our car, and had given our license plate (!). Part of me wonders if the trooper made up that last part, about the license plate, since that just sounds impossible. Maybe he had a generic description of the car (blue Lexus GX with CT plates), and to justify having us drive an hour out to him on a Sunday night, he added the part about the license plate match himself.

Any thoughts?

Rudy

Sounds a bit strange to me but I can't quite figure out what's going on. You'd think that they'd be able to dispatch someone to your house to look at the car (even if it's a local officer) instead of making you go to them like that.

Something sounds fishy to me...

realtyman

You're luck that your house wasn't "cleaned out" while you were making the trip to see the State Trooper. They should nail the people for filing a false report.

codex

Could be a stolen car where they've put a copy of your plates on their car. Wouldn't show up as a stolen car then if they got pulled, and any issues with the car (speeding tickets etc.) would be sent to your address.

kscarrol

I had this happen to a friend. Not to scare you, but it was a scam where they reported an accident and then after a period filed a lawsuit for the usual (whiplash etc), listing my friend as the driver of the car that hit them. By filing the lawsuit several months after the fact, I guess they were hoping to fool a jury into thinking the car had been repaired and at least get a settlement out of the insurance company. The police inspected the car and were finally able to determine that the car had never been damaged or repaired, like it would have had to if it had been in the accident that was claimed. These folks must have just seen his car on the street, noted it as a nice car and wrote down a description and license plate number.

If I were you, I might notify my insurance company and I would keep that statetroopers name and phone number just in case you need him as a witness...