My car got clobbered Wednesday.

I guess I don’t know exactly when it happened, but sometime between 5 pm Tuesday and 5 pm Wednesday, someone hit my car and took out the front left corner. No note. I did what you have to do: called the police to file a report, called my insurance company to file a claim, took the car to the shop to get an estimate, and got a rental. Cost to repair the damage: $1600, deductible $500. Ouch.

But then today, I got a call from the police that the driver called them and reported himself, saying he “didn’t know what to do” after the collision. I guess he tried calling his insurance company to file a claim, and they told him he had to call the cops, who connected his accident to my report.

I do my fair share of complaining about the Seattle Police Department — and to be sure, there’s a lot to complain about — but they did handle this courteously and efficiently, and it wound up saving me a hefty chunk of change.