My Son's Art Project -or- Why He Almost Didn't Make It To His 3rd Birthday

Most of my trials and tribulations occur far from home on vacation, hence the title of my Blog. This tale is a bit closer to home. In our driveway actually.

I was out in the front yard washing Dawn's VW Jetta and Dillon was wandering around the yard playing. We once had a reflector, mounted on a 3 foot fiberglass rod, that was driven into the ground at the end of our driveway. This reflector was used to mark the edge of the driveway where it met the main subdivision road. There is a culvert there and it is very hard to see where it meets the driveway at night when you are backing out of the driveway. Also, it drops down quite quickly and deeply so you don't want to get your wheel stuck in there. The kids kept pulling the rod out of the the ground and using it as a sword as they played in the yard, so eventually the reflector got broken off and the rod was now a permanent 3 foot long "sword".

As I was washing the car, Dillon was talking and playing in the front yard with me and I could hear him walking around our cars. We have 3 vehicles. A 1995 Ford Ranger 4x4, a 2002 VW Jetta Diesel, and a 2004 Ford Explorer. I got to a break in washing and was wondering where Dillon was because he was so quiet. He was 2 and a half at this time. I walked around to the other side of my truck and found Dillon making a beautiful picture using the fiberglass rod IN THE PAINT ON THE SIDE OF MY TRUCK !!!!

Aaaaarrrrrrhhhhhh!!! I completely lost control. As I walked around the truck I discovered that his "art" work went all the way around the truck and no panel on the truck was spared. I had scratched paint ALL THE WAY AROUND!!! The truck is red and the scratches went all the way thru the paint and the primer was showing thru white so the "art" work was CLEARLY visible.

Here is just 3 pictures of the truck after it got turned into an "art" project.

Here is the passenger side door (click for larger image):


Here is the rear of the passenger side front fender:


And here is the front part of the passenger side front fender:


The other panels of the truck looked similar.

The estimate for getting the truck repainted was around $1600 dollars.

Gotta love kids....

I had comprehensive coverage on my truck so I thought that it might be covered but I was highly doubtful. I called the insurance company the next day after my blood pressure returned to 145/98. I called and said that I wanted to submit a claim on my insurance. Here is how the conversation went:

Me: I want to file a claim.
Ins. Company: What type of claim? Fire, auto, theft?
Me: Auto
IC: Was it an accident?
Me: No.
IC: What type of claim then?
Me: Vandalism.
IC: Really? Do you know who did it?
Me: Yes.
IC: Did you file a police report?
Me: No, do I need to?
IC: Well I'm not sure, but usually we require one. What happened?
Me: My truck got the paint scratched up on every side of it.
IC: Oh my. You said that you knew who did it. Who was it.
Me: My 2 year old.
IC: (there was complete silence on the phone for about 5 seconds, then.... a burst of laughter that lasted a good minute long). After she calmed down and regained her composure she said that she completely understood and that I would need to get an estimate of the damages.

It turned out to be less damaged than what I first feared. It ended up being that just the clear coat over the paint was scratched, and that is what the white lines on the truck were. Once the scratches were buffed out, the paint was fine and it did not require a new paint job. The total repair bill was around $300 which the insurance company paid for and DILLON GOT TO REACH HIS THIRD BIRTHDAY !!!!

I took the fiberglass rod to the dump the next day.