Morally Bankrupt

As someone who tries to do the right thing, I have a hard time understanding people who don't. How hard is it to admit you did something wrong and to apologize? Two of my sons and the middle one's girlfriend were at my house today. I had spent the entire morning cooking one of their favorite feasts: lasagna, Italian bread, and cupcakes. We had just sat down to eat when there was a knock on the door. We weren't expecting anyone. My sons went to the door together, answered it, and then stepped outside. The youngest came back in a few minutes later and said, "Bad things are going on out there." When I asked what he meant, he said it had something to do with his brother's girlfriend's car. (I'll insert here that another driver switched lanes right into her car about three weeks ago and she just got it back from the shop last week.) The door-knocker had been the daughter of one of my neighbors who had seen my across-the-street neighbors checking both their car and my son's girlfriend's car for damage. She didn't actually see them hit the car, but it was pretty clear they had.

We called the police, and spent a long time sitting out in the front yard while the cop wrote the report. In fact, we were out there so long that one of my sons brought beach chairs out and we all sat down. The young woman who had stopped to tell us what happened stay quite a while so she could give her statement to the police. At least one of my neighbors has a sense of decency. Without an actual eye-witness to the incident there wasn't much the police could do. We knew the offenders would return eventually, and the cop waited over an hour. About ten minutes after he left, having told us to call when we saw the car come back, I happened to peek out the front door and saw them in the garage. They rarely park that car in the garage, and I'm not sure it was a coincidence that the occupants returned so soon after the cop left. They saw me looking at them -- and at their license plate. I told my son's girlfriend to call the police and tell them the people had come home. Minutes after they got home, they put the garage door down. I stayed outside so I'd know if they left again.

The cop came back and went over; they pretended the deadbolt was broken and tried to yell through the door, but the cop wasn't going for that. He told them to open the garage. The lady (who had been driving) lied to the officer about hitting the car but the bumper of her car told a different tale. The entire time he was talking to them, my son's girlfriend and I stood in my driveway. We heard most of the conversation. The driver-lady wanted to argue with the cop that the car shouldn't have been parked behind her driveway. It didn't work. When the cop went back to his car to prepare an updated report, she started poking her finger at me. That was a bad idea. My son's girlfriend said my posture changed and she knew something was coming. She kept yelling that the car shouldn't have been there, that it's "always there" -- even though my son and his girlfriend don't live with me and come over maybe once every two or three weeks. They usually park in the driveway but my youngest son is visiting this weekend so his car was parked there, next to mine.

I loved that the cop let me say what I needed to to this woman. I hated that she never apologized for hitting the car or for not telling us. She claimed that she had intended to say something when she got home, but I think her comments to the officer show that to be false. She is a woman about my age, who has kids and grandchildren living with her, and this is the model she provides? Now my kids (including the girlfriend) are worried they might slash my tires or do something else to damage my property (or me). I'm not too concerned, just disheartened to know how little integrity means to some people.