Sept. 24 - Just a raccoon?!

Since Ty was moved to first shift many months ago he'd said he would go back to second shift if he ever got the chance.  Well, earlier this month he got his chance.  The big boss called him into the office and explained they were short on guys on the night shift, and they really needed someone who was reliable and able to learn fast.  He asked Ty if he'd be interested.  Not only would he learn a new machine but he'd get another raise AND a shift premium.  Ty took a day to think about it but really I think his mind was made up the moment the offer was presented.  The little bugger now makes, in only one year on the job, more than I am currently making after twenty plus years at my own job!  But whatever...that's not the point of this post.

So last week Ty went back to second shift.  And what happened as he was coming home at 2am on that first night back?  He hit a raccoon.  No big deal, right?  We live in the country.  We're used to critters and we're used to roadkill.  But when I saw the damage to his car...whoa! 

"Are you sure it was just a raccoon?!" I asked, jaw hanging open.

 Look along the bottom, starting just right/under the license plate...

This is the view from right down on the ground, kinda looking up into the underside of the second picture.

Notice the underside of the fender is actually impaled on whatever that bolt is...

Luckily this happened just a short distance before our house.  He said when he got home and parked, he got out to look for damage and couldn't really see it too well in the dark but he heard 'water' running out from somewhere.  Obviously he wasn't going to be driving this car for a while.  When hubby got home later that day he did some investigating and found what we'd suspected...the radiator was destroyed.  The lower corner was actually ripped right off.  Obviously the front bumper was destroyed too.  Who knows what else was ripped up in there.

Ty had to use my car while we figured out how to deal with his.  He would give me a ride to work in the morning and hubby would have to pick me up at night.  Ty talked to a local repair dude and arranged to have his car looked at Monday.  Now we just had to figure out how to get it there.

Family friend to the rescue....

A friend of ours brought his trailer over and they loaded up the car for easy transport into town.  They dropped it off Sunday evening.  Early Monday afternoon the dude called Ty and said the car was ready to go.  He replaced the radiator, found nothing else wrong (*PHEW*), but he does not do body work so the bumper was not replaced.  He did, however, kinda piece it back together and duct taped it from the inside.  It still needs to be replaced but at least it's drivable now until we can get it in somewhere else.

One raccoon....$375 damage....so far...

It could have been worse.