You don't need to go to the trouble of hooking up your car to a varmit tunnel. Small smoke bombs are available in garden centers. I found these effective in driving out groundhogs. These will either kill the varmit in their den or drive them out their alternate entryway. Moles are an entirely different matter. They make a complex network of tunnels, but the mound of dirt is over their nest. Moles are nearly blind but cringe in bright light. They are extremely sensitive to sound and ground vibration. They hear/feel your approach long before you get to their lairs. Many years ago when I lived on a farm and our family depended on a garden. We found the most effective deterrent was the old fashioned mole trap. Its not humane nor elegant, but properly applied, it works. Locate the nest mound. Go a short distance away on the main tunnel and set the trap. Press the tunnel down to almost close the tunnel over a short distance, say 6 to 8 inches, and set the trap with the treddle on top of the collasped part of the tunnel. The trap is tripped when a mole passes through this tunnel again. If you must try engine exhaust, try a lawn mower engine, the bigger the better, maybe an old 2 cycle Lawn Boy. Don't use a motorcycle. Many motorcycle engines depend on motion through the air to cool the cylinders and heads. The air cooked ones overheat if left standing too long.

Most automobile insurance property damage deductibles are $500 and up. I was rear-ended last year and the guy who hit me wanted me to submit it to my insurance carrier and have them subro against his carrier. No way, why should I make a claim with my insurance carrier that will raise my rates because I was stopped at a red light and the guy behind me didn't stop? Absolute clear liability. Also, with regard to payment of damages - the person suffering damage does not have to use the compensation $$ to repair the car regardless of whether he owns it outright. The purpose of payment is to compensate the owner of the vehicle for the damages, he isn't obligated to fix it. If the car is leased, it will be up to him at the end of the lease to repair the damage or have the lease company charge him for the damage. Do you have a local body shop that would fairly estimate the damage that was done by the rock thrown by your son? I would ask your neighbor to take it and get an estimate for only the damage caused by your son. Will the guy who saw the whole thing happen attest to the damages your son pointed out? Perhaps enlisting his help with enlightening your neighbor as to what damage your son caused will dash your neighbor's hopes of having all of his body work done on your dime.

Asking for rental agreements, birth certificates and lunch menus is all well and good but I'm highly doubtful they're going to send this to you just because you request it, unless you use a subpoena. I personally would be very annoyed with a company sending out *my* contracts to every Tom, Dick and Harriet who requests it because they don't want to pay a bill, whether the bill is valid or not. AFAIC that's private data between the company and me and giving that out could be a potential violation of data privacy. I'm not sure they can give it out like that. The big question is how much time, effort and money will you spend on this? I'd definitely be looking at the paperwork, who signed it, who checked it in and the like. You could subpoena the the person checking it in to testify or at least get a deposition and/or affidavit about it. Likely they won't remember much, especially if they want to keep their job, if they're still employed there. Trying to track them down if they're gone, well that might not be easy or cheap either. Did you agree to arbitration for dispute resolution? What state's laws control the contract? This can make a difference too if you want to go that far. Fine print usually has a number of quirks in it. If you live in Texas and agreed that Delaware's laws will apply, that can be another monkey wrench tossed in. I do think you're doing the right thing to take the position that they haven't proven anything to you. (They who assert must prove.) Have they sent any estimate from a repair shop or is it just their standard claim amount? $500 isn't much damage. Scratches, small dent or two will hit $500 these days. I'd be going above the person sending this. I'd also go back to the person who initially agreed to drop it. Did you document time, date, etc and did they put it in writing that they'd drop it? I'd look over the contract too and see if there's any time-frame that could help you. How long do they have to make a claim and such. I certainly wouldn't go off saying you're representing yourself or anything like that since that's redundant. Obviously you're representing yourself. I highly doubt they'll take you to conciliation court. It's not worth it to them either. They'll probably just badger you, try screwing with your credit and the like and of course the dunning letters to get you to give in. You actually have some proof in your favor right now. They supplied you with a photo that apparently shows no damage. I'd use that to my benefit too, send it to the hierarchy and say this is proof that the vehicle wasn't damaged by you. Or save it for the credit agencies and collection agents. two.25acres raised good points. Comp claims won't normally count against you and *if* you're satisfied that the damage occurred while in your possession, since in reality a rock could have flown off a truck or something, it wouldn't be too big a deal and insurance companies like to split the difference a lot so they'd likely settle for a couple hundred. This is something you could negotiate too. You could offer them $100 to resolve it, with no admission of liability and to resolve it too, but I'd be sure to make it clear that this is just offered as a resolution and that you're fully satisfied that you're not liable, will be proven as such in court, etc. Let's face it, involving a lawyer is not a financially prudent thing to do. You'll pay far more than $500 to use an attorney and may well still be found liable. You won't get even an inexperienced lawyer for $500 since this will involve far more than an hour or two and that's what they bank on when they do this stuff. If you have a check-in statement with an inspection or release and coupled with the pictures you have, you could be in good shape. If you don't, you might be in trouble. Not right, but the way things go. But again, I'd go back to the one with whom you had the agreement and work that end first. Good luck.

Not going anywhere and do not miss it. Except for a couple 2-3 days in the CatskillMountains, then back here for 4-5, re-peat. I can get everything delivered and much better than even whole foods. Cheaper. They stock/support local farms much more than any grocery. Win-win. Masks are required/mandatory by law. No one allowed in a store without. I'm seeing about 95% + in my county and it seems NYC is doing close to that. I do hope the next phase Monday does not create a spike. Masks are everywhere free and lots of mask vending machines. Even our grocery delivery will send 5 free masks with every order. I wish every state did what we did. Cuomo's last public address yesterday expressed the fear of visits from other places will bring it back here. So many states are spiking now.