It really is the best policy

KEN GIGLIOTTI / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS ARCHIVES Enlarge Image

Readers donated money to help Sebastian Ibarra to pay for repairs to a car he accidentally ran into on his bike.

Honesty does pay.

Last week I told you about Sebastian Ibarra, a 24-year-old recent graduate of the University of Manitoba. He was riding his bicycle down Corydon this spring. There was a branch on the road. He swerved to miss it. In that split second he had to choose between falling into traffic or toppling over a parked car.

He picked the parked car. That was the beginning of his misfortune.

Ibarra, a foreign student from Mexico, did the right thing. With a note on the windshield, he gave the absent car owner his information, including his email address, home address and an explanation of why he doesn't have a valid licence.

Here's what the Lexus owner emailed back:

"Thanks for being so honest! It is because of people like you who make our city great. I hope you are at least OK."

So far, so good. Ibarra expected to have to pay the car owner's deductible. Months later, he got a letter from Manitoba Public Insurance telling him the damage to the Lexus came to $1,800. He'd have to pay the price.

When I told you about him, many of you responded with offers of help for a young man who supported himself through university, works two jobs and has $18,000 in student debt.

At last count, Free Press readers had donated $1,615. When Ibarra and I had coffee Friday, he got teary.

"This is crazy," he said. "I wasn't expecting anything." Ibarra hadn't contacted me with his sad story. The mother of a friend did. He wasn't asking for anything.

"I just want to thank everybody. All these people I don't know... is empathy the right word?"

Yes. Yes, it is.

I contacted the Lexus owner before the column ran, partially because he'd been so kind to Ibarra. He didn't get back to me that day. Here's part of what he had to say when we did connect:

"For the record, the tail light was not the only damaged part, there were dents and deep scratches in the rear quarter panel, dents on the trunk lid, and bumper was pushed up and in. The total claim was estimated at $4,000," he wrote.

"The tail light only cost $500 to replace. The back rear quarter and bumper required bodywork and refinishing, as well as the bumper brace needed to be replaced. I was out my vehicle for a week while it was repaired in which I had to rent a vehicle at my own cost."

He was frustrated and felt he was being painted as a villain because he didn't somehow make this right for Ibarra. While he was sympathetic, his car was damaged and there was no way he should be on the hook for the repairs.

He said he worked hard to buy his car and shouldn't be judged because it was a luxury vehicle.

As to why there's a discrepancy between what Ibarra is being asked to pay and what the car owner says was the total cost of repairs, I can't answer that. MPI can't comment on specific cases.

As we sat in Stella's on Friday, Ibarra questioned whether this sort of public outpouring of help for a stranger would happen in his native Mexico. He hoped it would, although he sounded doubtful.

He hadn't told his parents about his dilemma.

"Why worry them?" he said. He'll tell them now so they get a better idea of the people in his adopted city.

I asked him what he'd do if more than $1,800 was donated. After all, he still has $18,000 in student loans.

"If I do happen to go past that amount, it's not my money. I would give it away to an organization in Winnipeg. Maybe to the Bike To The Future organization."

But wouldn't the extra money help him out, I asked.

"My school's going to be paid by me," he said. "That's my situation. That's not why people helped. I couldn't keep that money."

The cynics among you will wonder if this guy is as good as he seems. The emphatic think we should have more honest citizens like Sebastian Ibarra.

Me? I'm back where I started. Honesty does pay.

lindor.reynolds@freepress.mb.ca

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition November 3, 2010 A2