Check this out....

A friend from Sydney is here from my company. Last night, he came by, parked his rental in front of my condo in SF, and we went to dinner and to see Ben Folds at Davies Symphony Hall. We were gone for about 3 hours or so. When we got back, the alarm in his car was going off and there were several nasty notes on the car. Apparently, the car alarm had been going off for about 3 hours.

He shut off the alarm, and I went outside to get the notes from the car. My neighbor, a pretty prominent woman lawyer, was also outside, and she asked if it was my car. I told her that it was my friend's and that I was sorry if it disturbed her. She pretty much stormed off as she was upset. I can't blame her, 3 hours of that alarm must have been pretty annoying.

After calling Hertz, my friend decided to swap for a new car. He left, and soon called me and told me that the car had been keyed all across the passenger side. I wrote my neighbor a note to apologize again and then went to bed.

It then started to annoy me that someone had keyed the car. I realized that the building's security cameras probably caught the keying... So I fired up the app on my PC and started watching to see if I could spot who did it. I started at 10:00 PM and started searching forward from there. Well, at 10:05, this lawyer walks out of her place, over to the right side of the car, does her thing, and makes a bee line back to her door. TOTALLY CAUGHT!

So I re-forwarded her my note with another that says "I just watched the video. The keying happened at 10:05, and I'm considering a discussion with the police."

She called me this morning and totally owned up to it. Said she had a "lapse of judgement."

Hertz didn't notice the damage, but if they do, I'll connect this woman with my friend and let them work it out.

I can't believe she did it. My friend wasn't negligent or being nasty - the car just happened to have some kind of alarm defect and he wasn't there to correct it.

That's my story. Any thoughts?

- Jon

I think you should go to the police, "Lapse of judgement" my arse, that's criminal (isn't it?) I've had enough cars keyed to want justice if it's available, even if it is only for Hertz. Scumbag.

pwnd i think is the term

yup I think I'd sit on it for the time being, just make sure you save the footage somewhere safe.

They must be seriously cool apartments to have CCTV that advanced.

I would go for it - even if just to collect enough money to pay Hertz for the damage. I bet that at some point they will notice and totally stuff the previous hirer for the damage. I would hate it if that happened to me!

If you go to the police and she is prosecuted then it would so her career some serious damage, so think carefully. On the plus side you might end up with free legal advice for life.

Gareth

The act was caught across 3 camera's. It's hard to see clearly. I snapped this one shot through the front door of the lobby where you can see her. I can follow her leave her place in one camera, then walk by the lobby in this snapshot, and then see her do the act in the 3rd camera. Attached is for your viewing pleasure... It was at 10:10 pm, not 10:05...

The cameras are from http://www.dedicatedmicros.com/ but I wouldn't fully recommend them. Maybe the unit we have is old, but it's pretty slow...

- Jon

I would say you should at least notify the property management. there may have been in the past other 'lapses', or more to come.

and if she's the 'high and mighty' type, she might be the kind of person to complain that others in the complex are 'troublesome types', and this information could show her true colors.

I would call the cops and have her flogged (:

The management might kick her out, in which case you won't have to worry about her as a neighbor any longer.
A lawyer!! Of all people! How 'bout a nice letter to the BAR!
Don't they have to take some ethical oath??

maybe the car alarm wasn't going off, and when she keyed it, it triggered the alarm.

The car alarm was definitely going off when she did "her deed." You can see it in the video.

I doubt they can kick someone out. The worst they could do is fine her, which I doubt they'd do either. They probably will say that this is a matter between her and the car owner...

Yeah, it's amazing to me that of all people that would do this, it was her. There are others in my building that wouldn't have surprised me at all, but her? Weird.

Like Mark said above, she must have thought that the owner of the car could be an homeowner or a guests car. It's lucky for her that it was a rental, but she didn't know that... Really bad behavior.

- Jon

Definitely turn her in. She would not have given a rats ass had she not been caught and would probably do the same thing again. I think you're giving her leeway (sp?) because its a rental, but I think thats a mute point. She didn't know it was a rental, it could have been her next door neighbors. I would at the very least give her a hard time. IMHO she got off waaaaaaay too easy for something so serious.

Wow. What an ass. She's not particularly clever either if this is a whole building CCTV system that you all have access to.

I'm sure Hertz will catch the damage, either when the car is cleaned and prepped for the next rental or at least when the next renter does his walk-around pre-acceptance inspection. You know then that they'll just end up automatically charging the credit card of the previous renter for the repair....

And yes, what a complete ass.

I say screw her! She's vandalised someones property and probably not for the first time. I say report it to cover yourself when the rental firm notices the damage.

Or if you don't want to report her, when your friend gets the bill from the rental firm get her to pay for it and warn her that any repeat of her actions and the tape will find itself sent to lots of places.

Keying the car was totally bummer...however, as one who sat for 2 hours in my living room while a real estate person was off with a client and left his car at the property he was trying to sale that was across the street...I just called the Police, and they had the car towed. Pissed off the agent...and was very satisfying to me, and expensive to him.
All this to say I hate car alarms going off for no valid reason. Very rude. But, to quote a famous Jedi, there are alternatives!

I agree with calling the cops to check out an alarm that's been going off for that long. No need to key a vehicle.

As someone who's had their car keyed before, I'm with the folks that say turn her in -- unless she's willing to sign a full document admitting to act, and that she will be making full restitution. Furthermore, you shouldn't wait for Hertz to notice -- you should point it out, and give them the lady's contact info, so they can bill her for damages.

Hi All,

I've been thinking about this all day. It's helped to read all the opinions and advice on here for sure.

I thought about calling Hertz, but I believe that they'd persue restitution with my friend as he's the one they had a contract with and he's ultimately responsible for the car. I think it would be up to him to try and recover whatever damages he (or the insurance through our company) would be responsible for... Since he's based in
Sydney, this would just be difficult for him to do.

Cops? I really think this would be bad for me ultimately. 1) To be honest, I think that this woman wields more power than I do within the courts and with the cops. She most probably will figure out how to skate, and then all I've done is created a real enemy and made our co-existence much more difficult. 2) The cops really won't care much and 3) My friend doesn't have any actual damages - Hertz did, and they aren't persuing it. (yet?)

I told the HOA about the situation, and the lawyer was unhappy that I did that. I also feel that she has been s-ing the proverbial brick today do to her guilty feeling and concern for her career/position in the building/community/law firm/etc. I really am feeling that she HAS paid in some ways for what she has done.

So I think I need to put this ugly event behind me and move on. It was an interesting experience for sure, and I learned a lot about this woman and what she is really made of. I know that I've FELT like keying a car based on what the DRIVER did behind the wheel. To me, if someone is a total prick behind the wheel, they may deserve that kind of punishment, even though under most circumstances, I wouldn't do it.

In this situation, her aggression about the annoying security system was directed towards the car, when the owner had nothing to do with the problem. It's not as if he could have done something to resolve it, or that he set out to piss people off. The aggression may have helped her to feel less frustrated, but it was absolutely without excuse, no matter how you slice it.

Sorry for the ramble. Hope I made some sense.

- Jon

What about notifying the apartment complex anonymously of the incident and let them check the tapes and have them handle the issue..?

I think I would think along these lines too, if I were in your position.