Someone keyed our Prius

I am so sorry this happened to your car!!, I know how pissed off you are right now, and most Wal-marts have really crappy parking lots and unfortunately, lots of low class trashy people shop at wal-mart, so I know the kind of trash that goes up and down those aisles..

Wal-mart does have Cameras in the parking lot and depending on who their manager is for security, they might be willing to view the tapes for you and put a DVD together for a police report. However, you would have to make a police report first and ask the police officer to contact the APC (Asset Protection Coordinater) at Wal-mart to please view the tapes for that location. The only problem with this is, being a large public shopping area, even if you did see the tape of who keyed the car, chances are you will not even know the person and it would be impossible to ID them for later prosecution.

My husband is the APC for a Wal-mart near us, and his 2002 Chevy S-10 pickup which is his baby,, had the brand new Tonneau cover sliced up with a razor blade of some sort when he was parked at work. We were infuriated as the Tonneau cover cost over $200 that covers his pick-up bed. It happened at one of the trashier Wal-marts and he was there doing an investigation on some internal theft and he has a strong suspicion it was an employee who was pissed at him as it happened late at night when the real trashy night shift workers are working.

What is your comprehensive deductible on your insurance?, Hopefully it is not too much, but I understand, even a couple hundred dollars is now a lot of money to fork over vandalism.

I've started parking near the Lawn and Garden entrance or the entrance to the Tire and Lube section just to get away from the rest of the creepy people that park at our Wal-mart.

Keep us posted on your repairs,

 

I agree with everything everybody has said about Walmart. I hate it when my wife drags me there. Last time I was there the lady next to me was on her cellphone telling her friend that her boyfriend could not leave their house because he was on house arrest and had a tracker on his leg. Heck, usually things are cheaper at nicer stores!! Security cameras are usually a joke. Yes, you can see the blurry blob that was near your car, that's about it. Somebody pushed a pocket knife into the tire sidewall on my Sienna at Costco... Guess what? Costco put a new tire on it. Think Walmart would do that????? These things happen no matter what car you're driving. Unfortunately that's the way people are these days. All you can do is minimize the chance of it happening to you by shopping at nicer stores or less crowded parts of the parking lot.

 

I'm really sorry to hear about the damage to your car. It's hard to deal with vandalism, especially when there appears to be no rhyme or reason for the act itself. People just don't grasp how doing something so stupid affects people... especially when it involves a possession that we are obviously all very passionate about.

 

Try polishing it out with professional fine finishing paste by hand.This stuff is very slightly abrasive but polishes to a shine. You won't do any more damage and you will certainly take the sharp edges off the scrape and make it much less noticable if not make it blend in completely.

May not have been vandalism could have been a big buckle on somebodies Handbag /purse; the shape of the scrape suggests this.

 

Without question, report this to the police. They will easily obtain the surveillance video without the necessity of you retaining an attorney. Assuming the incident was captured on video, the tricky part will be identifying the culprit(s). Perhaps you'll get lucky and they will be seen entering a car with a visible tag. If the responsible person(s) are identified and prosecuted, restitution will undoubtedly be a condition of their sentence. Stuff like this annoys me to no end, I hope this works out for you.

 

The curve of the scratch is very smooth, and it's not all that
deep. I'm tending to agree with the "large buckle" theory or
that someone brushed against it with a large object or maybe
themselves in passing. A deliberate keying tends to be more
ragged, and with less lateral control in a hand holding a small
object and under stress the path would likely be more random.
.
Do you have touch-up paint? It is possible that you could fix
it acceptably yourself by cleaning the area, filling the line
with the touch-up, and then doing the previously advised polish
job over that. Might still be slightly visible, but at least
sealed against weather. Bottles of touch-up paint should be
available at the dealers for relatively cheap, certainly cheaper
than having a body shop do a "perfect" job.
.
I suspect that if someone keys my car that's about what I'll
do, and if it starts to look any more like a bashed-up hooptie
as a result [more than it does already?!] then maybe they'll
leave it alone next time.
.
I could also comment on the type of people who have to resort
to feeding an adversarial offshore economy because they think
they're getting some sort of short-term bargain, but I think
others have already addressed choices of shopping venue...
.
_H*

 

You might want to think about some changes in your auto policy. We pay $42/year for $50 deductible on the Comprehensive portion of Prius policy. Rock-damaged windshields, front end damage from flying debris (typically, truck retreads), vandalism, etc...... $50 out of pocket makes this a no-brainer! Something to think about.

 

LMAO thanks for posting this. I just changed my deductible form 1k to 50 bucks with USAA. It was only like $38 more for 6 months.

Thanks again

 

Sorry to hear about the keying. You have to accept there are a lot of hillbillies, rednecks, dumbasses, and white trash who - in their deranged little peabrains - believe the Prius alone is responsible for the current price of fuel, the economic mess, etc

Try putting a conservative bumper sticker or an NRA sticker on your Prius and park it in compassionate Cambridge MA and count the minutes until you are keyed. Bias and hatred know no bounds

 

Be glad you dont live in PETALUMA CA. Roving band of vandals has been trashing Prii exclusively in this farming communtiy turned suburb, and nothing as trivial as keying.. Misplaced gas price rage by youth trapped in pickup culture I'd guess. And trends start here....

 

i would rather think the cause is that you live in a college town where many
spoiled brats goto school, never worked a day in their life, and due to wanting
to be cool among their peers do stupid things. keep in mind, the ones who
have to work to get through school simply do not have time on their hands
to go around keying cars and have too much to lose.

i would blame that before liberal versus conservative thinking. ;-)

edited to add: i have lived in 4 different cities in MA and i never want to go back.

 

I live in a town with three college's.
These type of activities are not what college kids do around here.

Doing damage to cars is usually from the trash crowd.

We only have one collage activity that is a major problem.
Once a year they have a thing called Greek show.
Major problems!!

 

could be! what i have learned, for example, worcester, MA, was that the
trash crowd wanted money for their next dime bag and would be more likely
to smash a window and grab whatever they could. no profit in keying a car...

the drunk kids from the 8 colleges in that city (probably more, i am forgetting),
were the ones doing random acts of vandalism. just ask any janitor or maintenance
man what they think of working on a college campus! you will get an earful. destroyed
bathrooms, flooded sinks, doors ripped off hinges, broken windows, you name it.

but everyone's experiences will be different.

i just have never heard of a case, second hand even, of someone keying a car
due to a political leaning....

 

hmmmmmmmm......sounds like trolls that hate our prius's. again i'm fumed about your loss. deductable or not, this should never have happened. i hope it all works out for you.

cheers

 

Really sorry to hear that people still do such things.

I have found that you can touch up the scratches yourself or with some friend who isn't color blind and who you feel is capable.

I know that this may sound silly but after all it is just money.

I have done it a few times and found a much easier and cheaper way to do it yourself.

If you go to an auto paint store/s, who usually deal with auto paint shops, they can match up your color on their computer, mix the special paint and also sell it to you in a spray can and also sell you a clear coat to add on after painting.

Sounds difficult and I thought so the first time I tried it on my BMW motorcycle. I am not a painter and had really never tried it before but decided to give it a try on a $20,000 bike that had been dropped and the body badly scratched.

Total cost of parts came to about $35 and it came out really well. Couldn't tell where the scratches had been, but I did have to sand it down abit and saved about $3000 in the process.

Just check around and find out where the auto painters go. You might even be able to get one of the clerks to give you a hand for a few bucks. It is really easy and I know that most of you will doubt your ability but then, I did the same.

I also thought some one in my neighborhood had keyed my car, later found out that one of their dogs had jumped up on the door. Funny but that made me feel better knowing that no one in the neighborhood was mad at me.

By the way, it usually is fairly easy to get the clerks to tell you a few trick and they usually get a charge out of being helpful.