The Shoulder
The Shoulder
66
steady-crow-485

Officer keeps showing up at my door about an "incident" my boyfriend caused — what is happening??

I'm honestly so stressed I don't even know where to start.

So my boyfriend borrowed my SUV a couple weeks ago. From what he told me, some guy in a pickup was being aggressive on the highway — cutting people off, brake-checking, the whole thing. My boyfriend got frustrated and apparently followed too close for a bit before they went their separate ways. Whatever happened out there, it wasn't a crash — there was no impact, nobody pulled over, nothing.

Fast forward to the next morning: a uniformed officer shows up at my door asking about my vehicle being involved in a "roadway incident." I didn't answer because I was honestly scared and caught off guard. He left zero paperwork. No card, no door tag, nothing. Then two days later he's back, walking around my SUV in the driveway, peering at the bumper. I watched through the window. Again — no note left.

Then I get a call from a number I don't recognize, and it's supposedly this same officer, referencing a case number and asking me to call him back. He gave me his name but NO badge number.

I called the non-emergency line to verify this was legit. The dispatcher seemed genuinely unsure who I was describing. She took the case number, transferred me to an extension that went to voicemail — and when I tried calling that extension directly it said "number not in service."

I took photos and a short video of the whole exterior of my SUV. There is literally not a single new scratch on it.

Does anyone have any idea what's actually going on here? Is this even a real officer? Should I be worried? My boyfriend thinks I'm overreacting but this feels really off.

10replies

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10 replies

  • 12
    bright-raven-202

    Oh this gives me anxiety just reading it. Something almost identical happened to a family member of mine — someone filed a claim saying their car was hit by a vehicle with our plates, and an officer came around asking questions. Turned out the other driver had written down the wrong plate number entirely. The whole thing got dropped once we showed timestamped photos proving the car was parked across town at the time. Document EVERYTHING right now.

  • 18
    daring-crow-899

    Whatever you do, do NOT call that number back without talking to a lawyer first. If the other driver filed an insurance claim against your vehicle, the insurance company sometimes works in tandem with law enforcement on these things and anything you say can be used to validate a claim that might otherwise fall apart on its own. You being cooperative and nervous can actually hurt you.

    • 13
      careful-marmot-126

      Honestly this sounds really frightening and I don't think you're overreacting at all. Trust your gut. The fact that he left NO paperwork either time he showed up in person is just... weird. Real official visits usually come with something in writing.

  • 21
    bright-swan-703

    I used to work claims and I'll tell you — the setup you're describing, where someone files a report but there's no actual documented crash scene, no accident report number you can pull online, and the officer's contact info doesn't check out? That raises flags. It's possible the other driver exaggerated or fabricated a "collision" after a road rage encounter to try to get something out of it. Your photos and video of the undamaged car are genuinely valuable evidence. Keep them somewhere backed up, timestamped if possible.

  • 10
    silent-kestrel-273

    A few things worth doing right now: 1) Pull your own insurance policy and notify your carrier about the contact — you don't have to admit anything, just report that someone is making inquiries. 2) Try to get the official case number verified through the department's public records desk, not the number this officer gave you. 3) If you can get a lawyer to make a single call on your behalf just to verify the legitimacy of this contact, that's often worth it. Most PI attorneys will do a quick consult for free.

  • 16
    steady-crow-625

    Not legal advice, but I'd strongly suggest not speaking to this officer — or anyone claiming to be him — until you've at least had a 20-minute conversation with an attorney. The fact that the extension appeared non-functional is genuinely unusual and worth verifying independently through the department's main switchboard. You have no obligation to call back an unverified number just because someone left a voicemail.

    • 20
      calm-raven-718

      Did your boyfriend tell you everything that happened? I'm not trying to be harsh but "followed too close for a bit" can mean a lot of different things. If there was any contact between the vehicles — even a tap — the other driver could have a legitimate complaint and maybe some minor damage you wouldn't notice on a larger truck. I'd ask your boyfriend to be really specific about what actually went down before you assume this is all made up.

  • 17
    patient-seal-334

    Just chiming in to say — even in situations where there's no physical injury to YOU, the stress of something like this can really do a number on you. I see it with patients all the time. Try not to let this consume every waking hour. Write down everything you remember, then put the notebook down and let your attorney or insurance company handle the back-and-forth.

  • 6
    silent-kestrel-449

    Here's the short version: verify the officer is real through the department's main non-emergency line using the case number only. Don't call any number he gave you directly. Don't let your boyfriend speak to anyone about this without you present. And get your photos backed up to the cloud TODAY with automatic timestamps. That's it. Do those four things before anything else.

    • 8
      weathered-late-shift324

      Following up on this — any update on how it turned out?