Greetings, all - I was right behind a hit and run last night; dashcam caught it, too, and I was able to see both license plates. Hitter tailgated a car, then sped around them and clipped them hard - hitter sped off while victim pulled over. I was in the next lane over and sped up to catch the hitter; guy hit about 90 trying to just get away from victim/any witnesses but I was able to get close enough to catch their plate.

I get home and find the hitter's info right away (using publicdata) , but old crusty publicdata (who says they're using the "OLD" Texas lookup system) couldn't pull info on the victim's plate; however, based on the starting letter of the victim plate, I know the registration is likely relatively new (was able to get the VIN number off of another site using that plate number but unfortunately, no website out there claims to reveal owners' names based on lookups.

I'm asking this on here because I see that some fellow Ags have access beyond what publicdata can reveal - and I was hoping I could reach out to the victim and tell them I have video of the incident and the hitter's info. Any assistance any of y'all have would be greatly apprecaited... thanks!

Look up FSguide he's a PI
Also why not see if police will do anything with it? Hold on I laughed while typing that...but ya never know

Get the victims insurance and call them and tell them you have the video and the plate and let them spend their time doing the work. This is what insurance is for.

Yeah we actually called 911 and they said they'd "have an officer call back for us to file a police report." It was 11pm last night and nobody ever called back.. thinking about this more, I kinda didn't like the idea of having my name attached to this since the hitter's actions were very aggressively road-rage-looking and is likely the kind of psychopath that will come find me for turning him in :p But at the same time I'm the only witness that chased after him to get his plate - so at the moment I'm the only person that is aware of the situation between these two plates.

Just bummed that the victim plate didn't come up in that janky PublicData site.
But thank you for the tip, I will reach out to FSguide...

I absolutely would - the only problem is, the publicdata site could only pull up the aggressor's name/information - the lookup tool said the victim's plate wasn't in the db (though they call the database the "[old] database" .. But, yeah, I'm happy to pass this info on to their insurance (as I'd hope someone would do for me) - it's just finding the owner's info to begin with is the mystery..

There use to be a way to look up an address with a TX plate number and vin. The site was a state .gov site related to emissions testing or something like that. Cant find a link for it anymore.

You may be able to find the vehicle owner through the Texas Crash Report database if the vehicle has been involved in a prior accident. If the victim filed a crash report for this incident, you could find it there, but it may take weeks to show up.
https://cris.dot.state.tx.us/public/Purchase/

Email me the victims LP#

TheTexaspi@gmail.com

lobstertexas said:

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I absolutely would - the only problem is, the publicdata site could only pull up the aggressor's name/information - the lookup tool said the victim's plate wasn't in the db (though they call the database the "[old] database" .. But, yeah, I'm happy to pass this info on to their insurance (as I'd hope someone would do for me) - it's just finding the owner's info to begin with is the mystery..

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Did you go back to the scene? Surely a police report was filed, if so, Ram hats where this info and video needs to be attached and then the insurance carrier will snag it I think.

Anyway, there is only so much you can do sometimes.

This board is turning into a Facebook neighborhood board. Just let the sheriffs dept know and move on.

Unless there is a death involved, police don't give a **** about hit and runs. I know this from personal experience with my wife being the victim in 2021. Spent a week in the hospital with broken ribs, lacerated spleen, bruised kidney and concussion. Her car was totaled. Happened at 10:30am on north side of San Antonio. Police were good little boys and wrote up report. Did nothing else to find the driver.

giddings_ag_06 said:

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This board is turning into a Facebook neighborhood board. Just let the sheriffs dept know and move on.

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giddings_ag_06 said:

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This board is turning into a Facebook neighborhood board. Just let the sheriffs dept know and move on.

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Been this way for years.

People add ___ is outdoors so.....

I'm with you. It's old

It was the onramp to a highway, so once I caught up to the hitter and got their plate, the exit and loop-around back to the scene would have taken quite a while; that, coupled with the fact that I had children in the car made me decide that the wiser way to go about it was to contact them when I got home (reasoning that since I had the victim's plate, it would pull up properly) ..

That's weird. Last year my wife's sister was in a bad wreck on loop 1604 north side. A car clipped her Jeep and caused it to roll. She was penned inside and spent two weeks in intensive care. The other car took off but some folks got the license and even video of the car with her paint on it.
SAPD Detectives contacted her husband that night and they talked with her as soon as she could talk. They kept my BIL informed almost daily and had the guy in custody in two days.
He said it was like they had a mission on that case.

My wife was on the overpass at 281 and 1604 when she was hit. Lots of traffic. No one stopped or tried to help with the exception of a young Mexican man that stopped and ended up calling me. I work near the airport and I got to the scene before any officer or paramedic. Not a single person called it in except for my wife before she passed out. No one got the plate , photo or anything. PD didn't even check any of the cameras in the area or any of the exits going toward IH10. Most people nowadays are pretty useless when it comes to getting involved and helping out. I have always stopped when I have witnessed a wreck, given my business card to the victims and made sure they were OK before I left, or waited for PD or paramedics to arrive. This incident with my wife has pretty much changed the way I look at that now.

I have travelled on the road covering six states for almost 40 years by vehicle mostly. I can't even count how many times I have been the first person on the scene of an accident and stopped to render aid or give first aid till first responders arrive. However I was in law enforcement for a few years and my dad had been a LEO for 38 years and I rode with him a lot when younger so I was trained in first aid etc.
Yep on most folks nowadays don't want to get involved but lots people are scared to stop because they are afraid of what they will see.
Our society has produced lots of people who are so sheltered they can't handled the sight of severe injuries/blood etc... so they actually run from it.
Sure hope your wife fully recovered and was ok.
I was in a fatality accident and was injured badly when I was in high school and can relate to her trauma from it.

Interesting approach to stalking a woman.

FSGuide said:

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Email me the victims LP#

TheTexaspi@gmail.com

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How does one become a PI? Seems like an interesting job. I have the kind of job where I have a lot of free time now and will retire fairly early. I might look into this.

CrottyKid said:

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FSGuide said:

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Email me the victims LP#

TheTexaspi@gmail.com

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How does one become a PI? Seems like an interesting job. I have the kind of job where I have a lot of free time now and will retire fairly early. I might look into this.

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In Texas there are a couple ways to get into the industry.

1. Get a BA in Criminal Justice and you can sit for the license exam.

2. Work as a registered employee under someone who has their license long enough and you'll get the state required level of experience to sit for the license exam.

I did option 2.

Getting & maintaining clients is the hard part. Texas is full to the brim with PI's and it's a cutthroat industry.

It's weird, the incident has really distracted me since it happened.. and in my head I keep cycling through how we're taught to get out of the car when you're in any sort of accident, and exchange information with the person driving the other vehicle - but those were in the more genteel days of not fearing there'd be any sort of confrontation. With this jerk that hit the victim, it is super-clear from my video that it was obviously intentional - and the fact that he was willing to sacrifice damaging his own truck so he can sideswipe someone is truly psychopathic stuff - so if both cars were rendered undrivable from that, getting out of the car to "discuss" with a guy who would do that would obviously not go very well, and certainly wouldn't willingly hand over his insurance information if he's crazy enough to purposely hit a car and try to speed off.

So, yeah, while it's a different world where we can't always be Samaritans, I felt I handled this from a safe enough distance to where I could at least help out the guy who got hit - I'd certainly be thankful if someone reached out to me if I were in that situation. But, certainly, your story exemplifies how everyone out there is on edge in getting involved because people do end up dying from the aftermath of stupid stuff like this.