Irony or just Bad Luck?

[ardei]

The story starts about four weeks ago when I placed a $500 deposit for parts with my local panel beater as he said he'd look for some second-hand parts for the rear of my car.

Cut a long story short:
- Turned out the $500 quoted by the wrecker was for a Festiva not a Fiesta *shock*
- Fiesta parts cost >$1000 and there's none in the colour I want.

So this week I called him up, told him I need to get my priorities set and will just forget about the parts for the moment as it seems a bit futile. He was ok with it, I went down to collect the money yesterday afternoon. Parked on the street (very narrow, two-way street with trucks travelling and cars parked on both sides). So I get it sorted out, I'm about to shake hands with him and leave when one of his mate's comes running into the panel shop and says "Someone's just run into your car".

Unfortunately it was my car he was talking about, and it was the front of the car. A man in his work van reversed into the front right corner of my car (pretty much straight on, but offset). No dents as such, but he popped out my right hand lower air-dam/grille and made some nice scratches/transfer of paint onto the bumper. He had the rear step/towbar so no damage to him.

My panel beater told the guy that it could be the whole bar to fix - $650. The man suggested just some touch up paint...umm, no thanks. Then my panel beater suggested that he could do it for $450 without sourcing a new bumper. So we'll see how it goes. The guy just seemed a little reluctant to hand over anything over $100 for the bingle.

Does anyone else find this story slightly ironic? I go in to get some money for a damage fix back and I get damaged further? Or just bad luck with this car? (Also had clear side indicators from Ebay fogging up when it rained but that's another story.)

But there is one thing that concerned me, the guy first wrote his name, number and rego down quickly and his name was "XXXXXX Lee" but when I copied the details off his license it was "XXXXXXX Li". He is asian, so his first name could be the English translation of the name on his license, although I know for sure that Li and Lee are two separate types of surnames, not just an English translation. I'm worried that he may have given me his mate's name and number to claim the damage to. Though I have his address and license number, so there is still some reassurance.