Roommate's friend's kid scratched the hell out of my tank. Must vent before I scream.

[Seriak]

Originally Posted by lastlight

same here. i've had kien watch my tank on a number of occasions and while he has to reach up pretty high on my kids' old bathroom stool to try and get food over the top of the tank, i make sure to not leave any magnets around for him to play with.

[CM125]

This is why I don't trust anyone with my tank

[The Grizz]

Hey Adam that is a real **** off when that happens but the scratches can be polished out if they are not to deep. I used cerium oxide and a glass polishing bonnet to remove several scratches out of my glass on my 300 before i put it together. It take some work and patients but can be done.

[SeaHorse_Fanatic]

Take lots of photographs that show the sections that are all scratched up. Also, place a ruler on the stand to show that it would require an adult holding up the toddler for him to reach the magnet cleaner. Then go see the parents and explain that unless they cover your replacement costs, you will be filing charges against them and their kid for damage to your property. This sucks that some adults are just so irresponsible and if they have been warned several times, then they have no excuse.

[gobytron]

The parents need to be taught a lesson.

they obviously have no respect for other peoples property and have passed that lack onto their kid.

entertaining their child (or keeping it entertained so they can rest easy and just enjoy the game) obviously was held in a higher regard than caring what happened to your tank.

That sense of entitlement would have me losing my ****.

Honestly....

Kids will be kids?

Only if their parents let them.


You should get all their contact info from your roommate. If they won't pay. the responsibility should fall on your roommate.

I would even consider calling the police and reporting destruction of private property just so you have record.

[IanWR]

Wow I just checked Alberta small claims limits, expecting it to be less than replacement. It was raised to 50k!!! Well, if the responsible parties have an assets, this maybe worth it to pursue. They may only award depreciated value, and who knows what that would be. Your tank cost x, it's y years old, therefor undamaged it's worth z. You claim damages, they'll say there were already some scratches, judge will split the diff, you'll win some percentage of z.

I wonder if a better route might be a claim through homeowners insurance, and let the insurance company go after them to recover their loss.

[Aquattro]

Realistically, unless they own up or you have it on camera, you can't prove who did it. Were there others in the house at the time? Maybe they did it. Maybe roomie was drunk and did it and it passing the buck. Maybe the pizza delivery guy did it.
You can't stand in front of a judge and tell them that you're absolutely pretty darn sure it was one of more of someone's kids. If they did, prove it. Can't prove it, then not happening. Will roomie testify against his buddies?

Unless they admit it, it's between you and roomie and/or house insurance.