Choose Your Own Crazy Ending

Some time ago, Chuck and I had an experience in which I questioned how we handled the last move. Play along and tell me what you would have done.

Picture this: I'm driving my car, Chuck was in the passenger's seat, and Rhett's in the car seat in the back. We were stopped at a red light and were in the right lane, with a right-turn only lane on our right and no other shoulder. Out of nowhere, BANG! The driver immediately behind me didn't stop in time and hit us. As she was not moving that fast, I didn't even realize it was a fender bender. (I though my engine had fallen out. Silly me.) Did Chuck:
a) Just wave to her and say, "No problemo!" (You know, because he speaks the Spanish.)
b) Get out and jump up and down and scream and yell obscenities, or
c) Get out of the car and check for damages like a normal and sane human being.

Here we both agreed that (C) was the only right answer for us, although (B) would have been fun too. Upon car inspection and finding no real damage to the bumper of my car, did Chuck then:
a) Just wave to her and say, "No problemo!" (You know, because he speaks the Spanish.)
b) Approach the driver of the car and inform her we're calling the cops, or
c) Approach the driver of the car and ask for insurance information, you know, just in case.

Again, we both agreed that (C) was the only right answer. No need to involve the cops because nothing that bad had happened. If Rhett hadn't been in the car, we probably would have chosen (A). But if something latent happened to Rhett, well, we wanted to be safe. I still think it's the right decision. So, the driver rolled down her window and said that she'd like to pull off the side of the road. It was a Friday around 4:30 p.m., we were on a pretty major road, and the light had already changed to green. Clearly we were going to become a traffic hazard very quickly. And in D.C., you don't fool with traffic, so Chuck said fine. As Chuck got back into my car, we realized that she drove away! I'm not even lying. She. Drove. Away. Do I:
a) Just shake my head and exasperatedly say, "People!"
b) Get out and jump up and down and scream and yell obscenities, or
c) Start following that car!

Again, we both agreed that (C) was the only right answer. We made it through the light and then the next. At this point, the road starts going up a hill and we can see her little car flying and weaving through traffic. I thought I'd keep going through the next light, but I certainly won't commit to drive to West Virginia over this. We came up to a warning signal alerting us to a red light up ahead. We know we got her. Because she's in the right lane and we know we need to be along side of her, not just behind her, I pull into the left-turn lane and park the car (no one was behind us). Did Chuck :
a) Shake a fist at her to let her know we are most definitely NOT pleased,
b) Pull out a knife and stab her tires, or
c) Get out and approach her car and speak in a slightly louder voice.

Chuck chose (C). I'm not sure this is what I wanted him to do. I mean, it was afternoon rush hour and there were cars and a light that was soon to change to green. But this woman hit our car (a car with a toddler inside) and then she drove away. I was angry, and I knew Chuck was too, so I wasn't that angry with his decision. When he got to her car, she screamed that she wasn't going to stop and started to move when the light turned green. Chuck still tried to get her to stop by putting himself in front of her car and had he not moved, she would have run him over. Thankfully he moved. He safely got back in my car. Meanwhile, we wrote down her license plate number. Did we:
a) Just shake our heads and exasperatedly say, "People!"
b) Put up fugitive posters with her picture all over town, or
c) Call the cops to report a hit and run.

We chose (C) and even now, I think it was the right answer. Chuck and I have strong feelings that one of the problems with the world today is that people simply don't take responsibility for their actions and here was a perfect example of that coming true. This woman HIT OUR CAR and thought by driving fast and mean that she was going to get away with it. We were not going to let that happen. Later that night when the cop came to our house he took our report. He then put the decision on us. Did we decide to:
a) Drop it and nothing more happened, or
b) Ask the officer to pursue her and issue her a set of tickets that will have to be paid for in person in front of a judge.

Here's where I wonder if we did the right thing. We chose (B). What would you have done?

P.S. Chuck's out of school through the end of the week and the government is closed today for the third day in a row. Three days people. This is huge. More on our stormy week later.