Those cops do follow up, at least they called me in for it once. I was accused of a Hit & Run in Houston about 15 years ago and the Police interrogated me pretty good. Long story short as possible, While in Acres Home I started going on a green light when some guy in a borrowed car ran a red light on my left cutting in front of me while turning into the same direction so as soon as he cleared my path I punched it to pass him on his left, but he punched it also and cut hard left into my lane again to block me. I held out to the last but he wasn't giving up and I was going to jump the inside curb so I braked hard. It was really, really close looking. He stopped in front of me and gets out, he's a disheveled middle age black man in a wife beater and looks like your stereotypical thug. He starts looking the the rear quarter of his car and me, I didn't see any damage at all so I cursed at him, flipped him off, and passed quickly on the right as soon as a gap in traffic allowed. He jumps in his car and follows me a few blocks till I had open road and showed him what a mid-12 second car can do in light traffic against a Chrysler LHS. When I got home I found some of his paint on a sharp protruding corner of my previously damaged fender that had been sticking out. I laughed hard and long because I felt he deserved it and my junk was no worse than before. I had already obtained a salvage fender and door in the same year, make, model, and color but had not found the time to put them on yet. Within a few days I received a call from an insurance company (I can't remember mine or hers now), some woman not involved at all is claiming I ran a red light and side swiped her car trying to avoid another car while she sat at the same intersection the real guy had last followed me to. I deny the whole made up story as IT WAS total made up BS. Within a week or so I receive some sort of notice from HPD to appear with my car at HPD's division next door to the court house down town. It was like a few days notice to appear so me and one of my car buds spent the afternoon installing the good fender and door etc. We were really careful and afterwards it looked like nothing had ever happened to even the most thorough adjuster. So I take the car and a lawyer with me to the interrogation, and the cop made comments alluding to bringing a lawyer was an action of a guilty man. We go through the whole made up story from the "poor and obviously distressed crying woman" to which I continually deny all knowledge of BS story while not mentioning the real events as that's not what I'm asked about. I have to explain how she could have got my plates and my description. I explain how I went through there every day in my commute, and say she could have just picked me because I'm an aggressive driver and obviously not a local (a young white guy in a flashy car in Acres Home). After getting all my statements on record he takes us out the car, parked in front, while he looks it over, the whole car inch by inch, taking pictures and asking me about every scratch and ding. There was one small horizontal scratch on the top center of the front bumper cover that he was really worried about (how that could match a scratch on her rear quarter I don't know) and at the time I couldn't recall how it had got there (bumped a tool box handle, came to me about an hour later) but I told him I did remember being very upset about it because it was a stupid mistake, that was the truth. He took this as a lie and at this point became very hostile. After that he toiled a bit longer then told us I was free to go but that he would still be investigating and I was subject to be charged and arrested if he determined I was lying. I never did lie about it, I only withheld the truth and the truth was never asked of me. He never assumed that she might have been lying and asked me what happened. He took pictures of me also for her to pick out of a photo ID line up. One good thing about a beard is that you can shave it off anytime and look completely different. So she couldn't ID my pic without one evidently as she had never actually saw me in the first place. That was the end of it.
If I were you I would let the insurance and cops handle it. If you must I would just try to get pictures of the damage before It's painted over or buffed out, fixed what ever. Don't go onto private property because he can then just blow you away and walk. Follow the SUV in a different vehicle to the store, her work, or something. Probably like in my case the jerk made up some story to tell the woman who owns the car and she's oblivious, so she wouldn't be looking for a tail. Even then it's a lot of risk's just for smashed junk. But if you don't have coverage, you got to do what you've got to do. Record it and take an armed witness just in case.
Good luck,
Vernon
Last edited by Manic Mechanic; Aug 24, 2013 at 11:50 AM.