Yellowknife (July 04/03) - Michelle Knott is fed up with people hitting her new truck and then taking off.

About a month ago, she was returning to her car in the Wal-Mart parking lot when she noticed her back bumper was damaged.

"I thought it was bird crap at first," she said. "Then I realized it was a huge dent. It looked like a pot hole."

She paid $250 to fix it because it wasn't worth going through her insurance company.

Then a week ago, the same thing happened.

"It's aggravating," she said. "You can't go after them because you don't know who it is. You can't go through your insurance because it will go up. So you either leave it or pay for it. It's not much of a choice."

Knott has been dinged other times. "It got to the point where I would take the licence plate numbers of the people who parked beside me."

Her husband Eric Knott parks his car far away from anyone else in the parking lot. "I've started to do that too," she says. "I'm starting to think it's not worth having a new vehicle up here. I should just get a beater car and then I wouldn't care so much."

The couple want people to know that hitting and running like this is a criminal offence.They wish people would just do the decent thing, and leave their name and number.

Yellowknife RCMP Insp. Paul Richards said people can be charged under the criminal code with failing to remain at the scene. Or, under the Motor Vehicles Act, they can be charged with failing to report an accident and fined up to $575.

Richards said if people commit another offence while bumping into a car, such as speeding, they could face a charge for that offence too.