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

[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.

[gobytron]

Originally Posted by 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.

Except if it went to court, ever single person there would be subpoena'd and have to say what happened under oath...

The question isn't whether they would testify, as witnesses to a crime, they would have no choice.

The question is whether you think your roomie likes these people enough to commit perjury and lie about it.

The judge could easily put the responsibility on everyone in attendance if nobody fesses up.

[Aquattro]

Ok, let's say that happens. Let's even go so far as the parents admit it and drop off a brand new tank in the driveway. Then what?? I just reviewed the build thread No easy task to replace that tank, house critters and reassemble. It would be months before it looked "normal" again, the work would be several full days, and that's just gonna suck. No happy ending to this, unless you can polish most out in the time you can actually keep a fully stocked tank drained.

[e46er]

Originally Posted by gobytron

Except if it went to court, ever single person there would be subpoena'd and have to say what happened under oath...

The question isn't whether they would testify, as witnesses to a crime, they would have no choice.

The question is whether you think your roomie likes these people enough to commit perjury and lie about it.

The judge could easily put the responsibility on everyone in attendance if nobody fesses up.

you give people too much credit for being honest and able to accept responsibilty.

all roommate has to say is I dont know what happened. shy of a video of roommate saying "oh crap its scratched" even if he was looking in the tank with the kid you cant prove neglience. or for that matter that without dated pictures of the tank taken as your walknig out the door the damage wasnt done by you.

roommates easiest way out without picking sides is to say he was drinking (im assuming at a superbowl party he was) and it voids his credibility.

I feel bad for you, everyone that comes to my house always grabs the damn magnet regardless how many times they have been told.

Im not sure exactly how I would handle the situation all I know is I'd blow a gasket.