Sixth-Grader Leaves Note on Car After School Bus Driver Hits Car and Takes Off
During the frantic flurry of holiday shopping, last-minute purchases and appointments, there are bound to be some fender-benders. Nerves are at all-year highs and tempers flare easily: Sometimes all it takes is a bad parking job to set someone off.
But what happens when you come back out to your car and see a new dent? Or it’s been keyed? Or a window is broken?
Unless you manage to catch the perpetrator in the act, or there are cameras or witnesses nearby, you just have to deal with it. Fortunately for one college student, an even younger student was looking out and saw what happened to his car.
The unnamed student didn’t just stand by, though. She completed a report on the incident, making sure to include relevant details, times, descriptions and a drawing, too.
When the college student, Andrew Sipowicz, returned to his car, he found both his damaged car and a precisely written note.
“If your wondering what happen to your car,” the note began, “Bus: 449 hit your car. It stops here everyday to drop me off at 5:00 pm.”
“What happened? She was trying to pull off and hit the car. She hit and run.
“She tried to vear over and squeeze threw but couldn’t. She actually squeezed threw. She made a dent and I saw what happened.
“Sorrry. – Driver seat left door. a lady in the bus driver seat 499. – Buffalo Public School Bus.” The note was signed, simply, “a 6th grader at Houghten Academy.”
Despite the typos, the note was clear and the handwriting was very neat. Sipowicz was grateful for the 6th-grader’s attention to detail and honesty, and when he approached the school bus group (First Student) with his story, they were apologetic.
“My first thought was (to) thank God for the note because without the note I wouldn’t have any idea of what happened,” the college student said, according to WGRZ.
First Student fired the driver and vowed to pay for the damage, saving Sipowics several grand. He posted a photo of the note and the damage to his car on Twitter to recognize the good deed.
Shoutout to the anonymous 6th grader for saving me a couple thousand (Bus not drawn to scale) pic.twitter.com/7aNK10xSwX
— Andrew Sipowicz (@Andrew_Sipowicz) November 20, 2018
“I thought it would get a hundred or maybe two hundred likes…within the first hour I think I was over a thousand,” he said. Apparently, lots of people like to see an upstanding character and hand-drawn buses with horrified students in the windows!
“The teacher said immediately that they knew who the student was,” Sipowicz said in an interview with WGRZ. “I have been in contact with that teacher this morning and we’re trying to set up something so I can go thank the student in person.”
The student will also be receiving a citizenship award from her school within the next few weeks, Houghton Academy Vice Principal Kevin Garcia told WKBW.
“I think it takes a special person to be able to do something like this … who felt like they had to do the right thing and I’m very grateful for that,” Sipowicz said.
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