Alright Jalops, this one is a doozy. What we've got here is a hit-and-run driver, a Ford Focus, and the single, solitary piece of chrome that was evidence of the perp's wrongdoing. Think you can help solve it?
Reader Mike Luscher was sitting at a red light, minding his own business:
I was Driving my Mother's '09 Focus, And was essentially sideswiped on the front bumper when the other car Ran a Red light while doing at least 65, My front bumper to his passenger side. This occurred in that Odd little stereotype of NYC, Staten Island. This chrome piece is all that was left from this, It happened so quickly I couldn't identify the car.
...
I was driving on Woolley Avenue, stopped at a red light for the intersection of Woolley Avenue and North Gannon Avenue
Waited a couple seconds in case anyone would decide not to stop at the light, looked to make sure nobody was still coming despite the red light
And then the offending driver went around the people waiting at the now red light on North Gannon Avenue, right through the red light, and into the path of my car
I remained stopped to collect myself for a moment, drove up a few feet to get out of the intersection, and out of everyone's way
And pulled over
The offending car went by at about 60mph, either very dark blue or black, couldn't see the driver, couldn't catch the plate, nothing at that speed
So put that part before the stopping and pulling over
Police were called, waited an two and a half hours for them to show up
They took down the info we had to give them, dismissed the fact I had a part of their car, and that was that. There were no Security camera's unfortunately.
Going to imitate the motherland and get a Dash Cam.
While we wait for Mike to setup his dash cam and start sending us glorious videos of exploding trucks and crazy car flips, let's take a look at the damage to the Focus after a bit of polishing:
Not so bad, you might say, but this is about the principle of the thing. Not only are hit-and-runs up there on the list of heinous car crimes, but a few inches closer to Mike in the Focus and we may be having an entirely different conversation right now. It was an incredibly dangerous situation, and we want to keep all the Jalops we have in the world.
So what do you think? Jason Torchinsky and I banged our skulls together for a bit, and it looks like it could either be some sort of exhaust tip or a piece of a front air dam, though don't let that sway you.
Of course, we probably won't be able to identify the exact car, but any little bit will help.
For further reference, here's another angle of the piece that fell off of the speeding car: