Thursday, March 08, 2007

Homeless Dude Fixed My Car

So, many years ago, I got into a small accident in college. I was driving down the street when the driver next to me (on a 1-way street) saw a parking spot on my side of the street and decided to go after it... ignoring the fact that I was between her and the spot. Unfortunately, I was in the middle of a move and despite having gotten her contact info, driver's license number, insurance number, etc, I didn't call the cops (was in a rush to get to a class), and then promptly lost all that info during the move. *sigh*

I've been stuck with the damage for a good... 7 or 8 years? Then suddenly on Tuesday night, as I'm filling up at the gas station down the street from work, a homeless guy walked up to my car with a tool kit and just starts going to work. He popped out the dent (mostly - it's not perfect... it's a dent that can't really be fixed) and then reattached the part where the bumper had come lose (I had tried to do it before, but couldn't get the clips to hold... he just put the clips in backwards and it worked o_O). While it's not perfect, it looks much better.

The man looked pretty wild and he was wielding a metal bar, so I wasn't sure what to do at first. But, it was still pretty busy around the area and lots of people were around, so I didn't think he'd try mugging me or anything. It took him about 10 minutes and I was a little leery at first, so tried to tell him that he didn't need to do that, but he just kept going and going and eventually got it fixed. I ended up giving him $5 because it was all the cash I had on me... I would have given him a $20 otherwise.

Thanks, anonymous homeless dude!

5 Comments:

Blogger eingy said...

That is the most awesome story ever. I hope you can find him the next time you need him.

That guys needs kerowack to write a story about him. I bet he has a really good life story worth telling.

10:22 PM

 
Blogger Unknown said...

That's awesome!

I can't believe you've owned a car for 7-8 years. I keep meaning to do that, but I think my longest stint so far is 5 years.

11:03 PM

 
Anonymous Anonymous said...

7-8 years just with the damage!!!!
wow. Crazy/good story though.

2:55 PM

 
Blogger hapacheese said...

I've actually had my car for 10 years. It's showing the wear and tear, but it's still going strong. I keep secretly (or not so secretly??) hoping it dies soon because I want a new car, but to be honest, it's cool that it still keeps chugging along (and gets 40 mpg!) It's got 163K miles on it, but I think it can go another 15-20K!

But yeah... the guy was a bit crazy, but I feel bad that I only had a little money to give him =\ I've looked at that side of my car every day since then and still smile about how big of a difference it made.

3:44 PM

 
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Uhn, yeah, that was me?? and, like, the $5 was totally uncalled for . But I didn't want to offend you. I'm Steve Ballmer, the head guy at a little shop called microsoft, and my favorite pastime is to fix stranger's cars.

And 163k is child's play. What kind of car was it again? I can't remember, I was so blitzed on crystal and hennesey... Anyway, i think it was a Honda or Toyota or something, and you should only really get concerned around 203,145.6 miles because after that they usually start needing a new flux capacitor. Good luck, star shine. The morning says hallo!

9:39 PM

 

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