The Crittenden Automotive Library

Hit and run?

Hit and run?

Gus Philpott
Woodstock Advocate
February 5, 2010

Today on www.mcsdexposed.com/ there is a story about a hit-and-run at the Woodstock Cardinal Fitness. The story reports that a white SUV backed into a blue car and that the driver drove away without reporting the crash.

On January 26 I received a call about this January 22nd crash and was given the license plate number (S 56-5) and name of the McHenry County Sheriff's Department deputy (a lieutenant) who was the driver. The next morning, January 27, I photographed a white unmarked Chevrolet SUV with sheriff's department license S 56-5 in the parking lot at the sheriff's department and found blue paint on the bumper right where I had been told to look.

I emailed the beat officers for Beat 24 of the Woodstock Police Department to ask if a hit-and-run had been reported. While my email was acknowledged, I never received a follow-up message to tell me whether or not the damage had been reported.

A manager at Cardinal Fitness told me that she did not know of anyone's blue vehicle having been damaged in the parking lot.

I understand that a report must be filed at any time a sheriff's department vehicle is involved in a crash that results in any damage. Reports should have been filed with the sheriff's department and with the Woodstock Police Department.

Why wouldn't the driver immediately notify his supervisor and call the Woodstock P.D.? Perhaps he didn't think anyone saw it.

I was reminded of a Thanksgiving in Denver when I was volunteering to serve meals to the homeless at Daddy Bruce's BBQ restaurant. Many people heard an engine of a vehicle being revved up, and then we heard tires squealing. And then we heard a loud crash.

A Denver PD officer was fooling around and backed up hard into a small compact car that was parked directly behind the paddy wagon. He hadn't been able to see it in his mirrors. He looked around, only to find a hundred people staring at him. All he could do was shut off the engine and go to find his supervisor. Every person there knew he would have driven off, if no one had been watching!

So I wonder what the discipline is for a lieutenant who damages two vehicles and drives away without reporting it? Is not reporting it the same as lying? Will he be fired? Or just get three days off without pay?

*** SEE article posted 2/9/10 with explanation from the Sheriff's Department about this paint transfer. ***