The Dishonest Note (Landon Richardson)

## Legend Summary

The wiki entry I am working with is called “the dishonest note”. The story is about a man who leaves his car parked in a parking lot, only to return and see that his car was scratched and dinted on one side. He notices there is a note left on the windshield, which he hopes is a letter from the culprit with his/her name and contact information on it. The man could file a claim against his insurance company for the damages caused if he had this information. When he walks up to his car, he realizes there is no name or phone number, only a letter saying he was only writing a letter because a crowd was watching, and he felt forced to leave a note. Which he did, unfortunately it was just a useless one. Another man had a very similar issue, where he returned to his sports car which now had a smashed fender. On the windshield wiper laid a note saying “The people who saw me sideswipe your fender are now watching me write this note, and doubtless figure I’m telling you my name and address so you can contact me and send me the repair bill…” It is interesting how instead of just leaving a fake name and number, the culprit went through the trouble of explaining the situation he was in not only once, but twice. This leaves him open to others coming read the note after he leaves and finding out it was a fake all along. Along with that, he also admitted to causing the damage which makes no sense, because he didn’t have to. In his situation, he should have just waited for the owners of the vehicles to return to their car and explain the situation to them.

## Legend History

These legends occurred in the 1980’s and 1990’s. This was a time when stories and folklore were very popular. This along with the sketchy story line of this entry leaves me a little skeptical. Not to say this story is false, however I could see it being fabricated in some way. Hit and runs happen all the time, and even worse is the fact that many times a note is not left at all. Even though you should try and contact the driver of the vehicle you hit, some people leave a note, leave a fake note as mentioned above, or. Just leave the scene altogether. Although this was a long time ago, it is interesting how stories can be shared for such a long time. It makes me wonder if the story has changed over time. For example, if someone’s great grandpa told this story, and he heard it from his grandfather, there is a lot of potential for information to get mix matched. I was not able to find and adaptions of this entry, which surprised me. The whole idea of leaving notes, especially confusing-useless ones seems interesting to me and probably many others. That opens opportunities for more stories like this to come to light, stories that have happened to people in the past or even recent future. If more people shared stories like this, there would be so many more interesting things people could learn about through other people’s experiences.

## Adaptions of the legend

Although I’m not sure of any adaptions of this legend, things like this still happen to this day. Hit and runs happen very often, and it wouldn’t be hard to believe that people were in. situations where they were being watched and felt obligated to leave a note, even with no plan on repairing the damage.

## Analysis of the adaptations

I do not believe there are currently any adaptions of this legend, however I could make an adaption to this story by connecting it to stalkers in general. Often, people who are being stalked receive random letters from an unknown person letting them know things that would make them feel uncomfortable. “The Dishonest Note” does this in a way of an accidental car accident, or a hit and run. The owners of the damaged vehicles are not aware of who is leaving the letters, all they know is their vehicle is damaged and there was no useful information left on the note.

## Works Cited

Brunvand, Jan Harold.   ***Curses! Broiled Again!***

    New York: W. W. Norton, 1989.   ISBN 0-393-30711-5   (pp. 118-120).

    2.   Cerf, Bennett.   *The Sound of Laughter.*

    New York: Doubleday and Company, 1970   (p. 363).

    de Vos, Gail.   ***Tales, Rumors and Gossip***.

    Englewood: Libraries Unlimited, 1996.   ISBN 1-56308-190-3   (pp. 115-116).

    1.   Smith, Paul.   ***The Book of Nasty Legends***.

    London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1983.   ISBN 0-00-636856-5   (p. 78).