A few weeks ago I drove into town and, arriving rather early, I sat in the car waiting for the church clock to strike nine when I’d know the shops would start to open. I was parked by a bright yellow car which looked fairly new and next to it was an empty space.

I was just about to get out of the car when I noticed a very large 4x4 belting up the side of the car park, it sped into the row where I was parked and slammed into the other empty space hitting the front passenger side of the yellow car. A scrawny, little, old man in a flat cap jumped out of the 4x4 and, after surveying the damage caused by his carelessness, he leapt back in, reversed and, without further ado, sped off to another parking spot three rows down. He hadn’t even been aware that I was a few feet away watching him.

“What a rotten little ….!” Words failed me “Fancy doing a nasty, underhanded trick like that!” I thought, I was furious, I felt like marching up to him, grabbing him by the throat and giving him a good shaking. Having thought better of it, I did have a bad back at the time, I waited until he had walked out of sight, I then hobbled along and took details of his vehicle which, along with my own name, address and `phone number, I left under the wind screen wiper of the yellow car.

Later that day, I received a `phone call from the owner of the yellow car, thanking me profusely for the details. She added that the passenger side of her car was quite badly damaged. “Three times”, she said this had happened in car parks and not one person had owned up so this time she was out to find whoever had done it and make him pay.

That evening, she `phoned again to say that she had “Got him!” and that he was going to pay for the damage in full. After investigation and receiving his details from wherever, she had `phoned him and he had flatly denied having anything to do with damage to any car. She then challenged him to go outside and look for flecks of `different coloured` paint on his 4x4 to which he snapped “There’s no yellow paint on my car!!!” And that’s when he shot himself in the foot...

Later, she sent me a lovely flower arrangement as a token of her appreciation; she really shouldn’t have, I was only too pleased to know that Mr 4x4 had well and truly got his comeuppance.