I've seen scratches like that from a bent, damaged bumper with a sharp exposed edge. Sorry for you op, seems like there's no ware safe to park anymore.

 

I have never understood why someone would want to damage a car that way.

 

 

It's rare that I get so enraged at people that I want to cause them physical harm, but this is one of those occasions. People that harm or kill other people or animals, or people that vandalize other's property need to be severely beaten. There's no excuse for it...our society is turning into scum...

 

Our society has always had scum.

 

Do not believe it was a vandal. Too low and no way a guy could take a chunk out of the body like take....not even Arnold!! You have to rethink where you were with the car!

 

I just went out and looked at my car. I am 6 feet. Right above the BSM is definitely not too low for a key, screw driver, knife. ice pick or any other sharp object. Check it out. As for the chip, these cars chip fairly easily, I have a few on my car.

 

My thoughts from get go one. At least not with a key.

 

 

Bending down isn't that hard to do.

 

 

So not to be noticed when scratching your car. I rather agree with the opinion it wasn't done by a person. I follow Mr. Bill's logic to park smart. Park close on the protected side, leaving more room on the other side. Never between 2-door cars, longer doors. Angle your car within your spot. Or park next to a handicap spot, close to the blue grid leaving more room on the other side. Assess the worst of any situation before you park. I probably shouldn't say anything but I have 165,000 miles on my car and have no BSM's. No scratches on either side.

 

 

 

My wife's silver Toyota has similar scratches on the right side of here car, roads here have no shoulders, so debrea and branches are ofter on the side or in the road.
One day while riding with her she couldn't avoid a tree branch in the road, breaking it in half sending the other half down the side of the car making similar scrathes.
Not saying this happened to you, sorry for your pain......

 

I agree here. If the car was hit ( as I expect ) it could have been done earlier then when you actually noticed it. If you typically park away from others, its possible it was accidentally hit and because if was away from security cameras and other foot traffic, the person felt they could get away with it. Its not that easy to take a chunk our of a body panel, meaning there was some " force " behind it.. I doubt a shopping cart could have done that, unless it was going very fast.. Even a good person could have hit it and because of all the grief involved with owning up ( insurance increase etc. ) not everyone does the " right thing " even though they may be a good person. Especially if they go by the adage, ( no good deed goes unpunished ).. the good deed ? Owning up to hitting your car. Also it is possible that the person had their radio on and hit you, and didn't even know they hit you. . Lots of reason for this to have happened. speculation is what we do here, and none of us could possibly, know just how it was done.
Ive heard of some people hitting a car in a parking lot . get it out ( under the view of bystanders ) and writing a note and leaving it on the window.. only to write, sorry I hit you... and that's it,, no contact info etc. YOU ASKED... " How does this even happen " it happens every day, thousands of times a day throughout the country.
Just adding to the discussion and speculation.
Bill aka ET

 

WE lost " Mr. Bill "here a long time ago... You may not remember him but he was a great contributing member of this forum.. sorely missed. However, I know you meant no disrespect to him .And thank you for recognizing the logic of my logic. lol

Parking smart, just requires a little logic.. For many parking is an automatic act, buried in the back of the brain. However smart parking requires frontal lobe thinking, assessing the available parking spots. and making an intelligent and logical decision where to park. There are good parking spots everywhere ( ones that do not look like you think your car is special ).. you want to eliminate as many potential threats as possible, but even parking smart requires a level of luck, that you can not control.

I know a few things because I have seen a few things
Bill aka ET

 

 

This is why we can't have nice things.

I was driving my 00' frc on the freeway about 3 months ago and some dumb *** ran over a ripped up tire tread and popped it up in the air. It landed right on the hood and deflected off my windshield, it put two nice deep scratches about 3" long on my hood. My car was flawless before this.

 

I had a "gouge" like that on the top most aft part of my C5 driver door, just above the handle. How did I get it? I was gently pushing the car back in the garage and forgot how close I was to the entrance. Believe it or not, a gentle tap on the garage door rail gouged the fiberglass like yours.

I honestly doubt it was done by a person vs an object but I can understand your reasoning. At least that is my thought. Anyone who would key the car would have a light/deep cut into the clear and paint and nowhere near as "straight" as that looks. Follow the line on the door. It is nearly straight until the object hit the separation in a rearward motion (which disrupted the path), jogged up a tad, then goes back in line with the starting line. As "straight" as it appears, I initially thought it was the dirty topside of clearbra.