Merry Christmas to us!

On the Monday before Christmas I took the girls to the grocery store to get a few things. When we were done, I got the girls in the car then started buckling them in. As I was doing this, the guy who was parked next to me pulled forward (we had both pulled forward in the stalls so we wouldn't have to back up). The guy was driving a big dually truck and as he pulled forward the wheel well caught the door (the rear driver side door where I was getting the girls buckled in) and started bending it toward the front of the car. When I heard the metal crunching, I straightened up and took a step back-luckily I did so, as the door suddenly sprang back closed, slamming my arm in the door (lucky it was my arm and not my head). I looked up to see the driver still going. I thought maybe he didn't hear the five other witnesses yelling and didn't realize he had done it so I chased after him and tapped on the side of his truck. That's when he floored it and took off. I was able to get his license plate number and we called the police. I figured between getting the plate number and having literally 5 witnesses who described the truck all in exact detail and insisted it was the man's fault, things would work out-the police would get the guy and he could pay for the damage. There was about an 8 inch gap where the door wouldn't close-plus, it was pushed forward just enough that the front drivers door wouldn't open either. Anyway, the police told me they would track the guy down and call me the next morning. Did I mention the fact that it happened nearly TWO WEEKS AGO?! I have called the police station several times since then only to be told that they have been too busy to work on it. Then they assigned it to a detective who just happens to work regular office hours-which means he doesn't really work between Christmas and New Years! Obviously since the door wouldn't close and I'm not much into the whole Dukes of Hazzard climbing through the window thing, we went ahead and got it fixed. Thankfully we only had to pay the $250 deductible, especially since the total repair bill came to over $2,000. However, repair shops also work "office hours" during the holidays so by the time they ordered the parts, had them shipped, celebrated the holidays, then finally did the work, we just barely got it back. Normally we would think this just stunk and was rotten luck but would still just get by by driving our truck. However, did I mention that just before the car incident, the heater on our truck broke? We had planned to take it in to have it fixed on Tuesday, but since the car got mushed we had to have something to drive. What a mess! It's not very fun without a heater. Not only is it cold, but the windows fog up-a lot. In the middle of all of this, we had plans to go to Elsinore for Christmas but without our car we had to take the truck. We went in the middle of the day so we were a little cold, but at least the windows didn't really fog up much. Anyway, we survived and other than some obvious frustrations and hostility and being out $250 for now, we're just thankful none of us were seriously injured. Hopefully the crime here in the big metropolis of Cedar City will slow down enough that our overworked police detectives can track down this guy. I think if this ever happens again, I'll have them go ahead and call the ambulance to take me to the hospital thereby making it more of a priority case. And hopefully the guy has insurance or at least enough money to pay our deductible back to us! UUGGHHH!