My Shed was Hit

On Father's Day we went to church, ate lunch at Carlos O'Kelly's, and made a short trip to our local discount super center. When I arrived home my neighbor, who is 85+, came running out of his sun room and was yelling for me to come over. I first thought that he wanted to know if we are going to have a garage sale. He is always asking us this because he owns property and always has stuff to sell. He has so many items to sell because college students leave a bunch of crap whenever they move out. If you didn't know, having more than one garage sale on the same street attracts twice as many customers than does one. This is why he is always asking me. To his credit, we usually have one every other year to unload stuff that we out grow.

This time it was nothing about a garage sale. In fact, it was because a guy hit my shed and smashed parts of it. What happen was a guy was going westbound out of CF on first street, which is the one that is adjacent to my backyard, when his trailer came unhitched. The trailer unhitched, broke the safety chains, zoomed past the driver, and flew diagonally across my yard until it hit the corner of my shed. If it didn't hit my shed it would have hit my neighbors sun room. This was a big double wheeled trailer and had a lot of momentum.

After the trailer came unhitched, the guy drove over my yard reattached his trailer and drove off. He was kind enough to leave his name and phone number with my neighbor. I was surprised by this action and at first suspicious. Was this his real name and number? How can a guy have a weird accident like this and not call the police? Isn't that like a hit and run? I called the police. When he came, he didn't seem that concerned. He told me to call the guy and if there was any problem to let him know.

When I called the guy it was actually him. He had the exact same insurance man that I had. He was a nice enough guy and wanted to settle it anyway that I wanted to have it settled. I told him that this is my first accident situation and wanted to deal on the legal side of things. I didn't want to deal in cash or get some weird check from the guy and end up with problems. I did everything through the insurance man except for the initial phone call to the guy.

To find out, this was the best option for both sides. He didn't have to pay anything from his pocket and his rates will not go up. I got an estimate for a new shed at Menard's and bought it a few days later. The estimate and the real cost were the same. I received my check for the exact amount a few days after I bought the shed. The delivery of my new shed was included in the claim. Last Tuesday I took down my old shed and put up the new one on my own. I gave the old shed to J. Nelson as you would know her from elementary school.

I was able to snap the old shed back together until I received my new one. However, the shed was compromised because some of the securing tabs that holds a key panel in place was broken. I chose to get a new shed because the other one could not be fixed and I didn't pay $500 in 2003 to have a compromised shed. Anyone could pull on the panel and get into my shed. The average Joe would not know that my shed is compromised if they didn't know what happened to it. It could have been fine for years to come, but I don't think that I need to worry about it all of the time. You know how I can worry about the silliest things.

So everything worked out for the best and I have a new shed. The old shed is not in the trash and is being used by someone else who could use it. The only thing that I didn't get paid for was the grass seed and soil that I needed to fix the the yard. The trailer left ruts in about four places as it flew across my yard. Did I mention that it missed Jonah's sandbox by less than a foot and it just missed my red oak in the back by inches? Thank goodness it it my shed or it might have killed my neighbor who was sleeping in that sun room of his.

Crazy stuff around here this summer.