# Anybody beaten a tow? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [June 19, 2009, 2:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anybody-beaten-a-tow/500297 "2009-06-19T14:48:34Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![joebuck20](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/74df32/32.png) [@joebuck20](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/joebuck20)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2009, 8:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anybody-beaten-a-tow/500297/41 "2009-06-19T20:31:49Z")
Do drivers who work for towing companies get paid by the hour or on commission based on how many cars they bring in? ---
**Author:** ![ducati](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/cc9497/32.png) [@ducati](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ducati)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2009, 8:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anybody-beaten-a-tow/500297/42 "2009-06-19T20:33:14Z")
As an ex-cop and business owner, I’ve heard every excuse there is. Two more certainties to add to death & taxes: no one thinks they’re a bad driver, and no one ever thinks they deserve a tow/boot. As an off-duty cop, my weekend job was working at a 24 hour restaurant from 11pm to 7am to control the crowds, quell disturbances, and generally keep the after-hours (drunk) patrons and cruising teens in line. Every night people would park there in front of the “Parking for Customers Only” signs and head for the theater or other stores. If I saw them, I’d politely shoo them away, but of course we towed many every night. One night, a man came looking for me to report his cars stolen. I explained the deal, and told him where to go, but he looked very familiar to me, and I did to him as well. As we’re standing there going through our lives trying to figure out how we knew each other, a woman and her parents showed up screaming and demanding to know WTF had happened to their cars, yada, yada, yada. Ding. Now I know. The young lady with the sailor-embarassing vocabulary was in fact, a former GF of mine - a casual, hook-up kind of thing that ended amicably, and left us friends. Good enough to meet for dinner & drinks with her new BF when he came along some time later. And of course, that’s the guy I’ve been chatting with. Turns out she & her parents met BF for dinner, (2 cars) and decided to park here & walk there. Oh well. Try as I might, I could not get the towing company to budge, and they had to pay bags of cash to get their cars back. I haven’t heard from her since then. I always felt bad about that (only a little), so when I opened a business here in Buckhead (the nightlife part of Atlanta) I kept it in mind. My shop was on the main drag, within walking distance to a dozen clubs and restaurants. Couple this with the fact that an 8 story condo was right behind me, and their only entrance/exit was the easement through my parking lot, it promised to be problematic. I tried to be a good neighbor at first, going to the condo folks and arranging a plan with them. Since my shop had been empty for a year or more, the tenants in the condo had decided that my lot was their lot, nevermind that they have secure underground parking that is much more convenient. My offer was that I would have the lot during the day, and they could use it at night. We made sure that each tenant got this info, and my personal number should they have questions. Sadly, I underestimated the general level of sefishness and arrogance of the tenants, and had to ask people to move their cars every freaking day for months, so that my customers could park in my own lot. Couple this with the trash, beer bottles, used condoms, and vomit that each morning brought me from the local revelers, I eventually had enough. No Parking signs went up, the edict was given to the condo managers and tenants, and I searched for a suitable towing company. I found one who agreed to do my bidding and turned him loose. Looking back, I should have gotten a cut of the action and retired years ago, but I think that’s illegal! If someone were thoughtful enough to simply come ask me if they could park & go elsewhere, I let them. If the condo folks had overnight guests who needed to park, all they had to do was tell me and I let them. I’m generally a nice guy, but we all know how that turns out! Property owners are entitled to the use and control of their property, and I just can’t understand why so many people can’t or won’t accept this, and govern themselves accordingly. ---
**Author:** ![Bijou\_Drains](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bijou_drains/32/2814_2.png) [@Bijou\_Drains](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bijou_Drains)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2009, 8:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anybody-beaten-a-tow/500297/43 "2009-06-19T20:35:20Z")
One reason our area put into place limits on the tow companies was there was a case where they towed cars from people at the debutante dance. And those people have money and influence and got ticked off so they got limits put on tow companies. ---
**Author:** ![tdn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/94ad74/32.png) [@tdn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tdn)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2009, 9:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anybody-beaten-a-tow/500297/44 "2009-06-19T21:01:32Z")
I can think of one case where a bunch of people fought a towing and won. Out back of my apartment is a street with maybe a couple hundred parking spots. There was a snow emergency and everyone was told to move their cars. Those who didn’t got towed. Their fault, right? Nope – The towing company made the announcement over a loudspeaker at around 3 am, and started towing at 3:05 am. As it turns out, the local politician that declared the emergency was getting kickbacks from the towing company. I don’t know how many cars they got that night, but I’m pretty sure it was over 50. Victims of this scam got their money back plus more. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2009, 11:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anybody-beaten-a-tow/500297/45 "2009-06-19T23:00:21Z")
> [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](#): > > If they could could be challenged in SCC for towing at midnight, wouldn’t somebody have already done it? Small Claims Court generally can’t be used for precedence. ---
**Author:** ![Kevbo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/e47774/32.png) [@Kevbo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kevbo)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2009, 12:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anybody-beaten-a-tow/500297/46 "2009-06-20T00:22:02Z")
Heres one way : [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/chBRSH5-dSQ/hqdefault.jpg "Chinese Tow truck get Towed -----Very Hilarious") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=chBRSH5-dSQ) ---
**Author:** ![kathmandu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/5f8ce5/32.png) [@kathmandu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kathmandu)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2009, 1:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anybody-beaten-a-tow/500297/47 "2009-06-20T01:01:22Z")
I doubt you’ll have any luck disputing the ticket. That parking lot is private property, and is intended for the use of the customers or employees of that business. It’s not their problem that your boyfriend’s parking space is too far, or inconvenient, or unsafe. They are entitled to determine who is allowed to park in their lot, and in my opinion, they are under no moral obligation to let your boyfriend park there for free. Parsing whether “overnight” means all night or at night or whatever is sort of beside the point. Your boyfriend knew he was taking a chance, and he got caught. ---
**Author:** ![mswas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e99b99/32.png) [@mswas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mswas)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2009, 1:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anybody-beaten-a-tow/500297/48 "2009-06-20T01:31:17Z")
Pay the fine and take them to small claims court. ---
**Author:** ![joebuck20](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/74df32/32.png) [@joebuck20](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/joebuck20)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2009, 5:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anybody-beaten-a-tow/500297/49 "2009-06-20T05:33:14Z")
> [@Martin\_Hyde](#): > > I’ve heard very few stories of anyone beating a tow because most of the time the tow companies are in the legal right. > > Furthermore I find the “criminal” characterization in **Sailboat** ’s post to be a bit off. A tow truck driver isn’t towing you as some sort of act of law enforcement, he is just exercising (as a third party) a property owner’s right to remove unwanted objects from their private property. > > In all of the residential properties we own that have parking the tenants have a responsibility to display their parking tags and if the lot is one in which we issue guest tags their guests have a responsibility to display those. Otherwise the towing company we contract with will most definitely tow these vehicles–I have no interest in people parking in a parking lot taking up spaces from my paying tenants. > > There’s definitely a chance that people who “should” be able to park there get towed–our manager has gotten many angry phone calls in which a tenant says we towed their friend’s car. However it is always explained very carefully both in person and in writing what the regulations are for their respective lots–some lots are so small we can’t offer guest tags and even on our biggest lots we only issue one guest tag per unit. Some people like to throw parties and have 5-6 guests park in tenant parking which isn’t fair to the other tenants. Some people have friends over and forget to tell them they need to hang guest tags–that’s the problem of the tenant and one that the tenant’s friend should be angry at them for, our position is we’re trying to provide parking lot access to our customers who are supposed to be able to park there and letting random people with no tags park in the lots gets in the way of that. > > However I **have** heard of someone beating a tow and it was a case of a predatory towing company. A local Methodist church has a very large parking lot and to make extra money they sell parking passes; because of the church’s location it is a good spot for local business owners and employees to park when they drive in to work. > > However the church does not have a contract or an agreement with any local towing companies. If the pastor or the maintenance man sees a car without a parking permit parked there they will call and have it towed but they do not have a tow company coming by on a set interval to check their lot. Obviously the parking lot also has clear signage saying that parking is “unrestricted” any time there are church hours–the church does not wants its congregation to have to get parking permits to park there for church and this doesn’t really infringe on the paid permit holders because they are primarily only parking there during business hours. > > Anyway, I’m personal friends with the pastor and he told me that his trouble with a predatory towing company started when he was walking an elderly woman out to her car after she had stayed 3-4 hours after church services working on something for the church. Her car was gone and after calling around it turns out a tow company had towed it on its own initiative–note that this tow company had no agreement with the church and had not been called by anyone who worked or was associated with the church. The pastor got into a huge argument with the towing company but ultimately they wouldn’t budge. Finally the pastor caved and paid for the woman’s towing out of church funds and drove her to the impound lot to retrieve her car. > > This happened in similar situations 3-4 more times in the same month. In the final incident the pastor’s car was towed out of the “Minister Only Parking” spot by this same predatory towing company. At this point the pastor was out for blood, and as is common in some relatively small communities religious leaders often have political connections. The pastor had several meetings with the city council (several members of said council were members of his church) as well as with the police department. > > One of the city councilman ultimately called the towing company and informed them that the church in question was having video surveillance installed on their parking lot and that the presence of any vehicles from their company on said lot, at any hour of the day, would be considered criminal trespass and that any removal from said lot would be investigated by the police as auto theft. > > The pastor pursued his personal case through the local courts for some months and eventually won and under some sort of legal rule relating to these matters he was awarded something like 4x damages (so around $1200 from the towing company.) This guy is my new hero. ---
**Author:** ![mswas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e99b99/32.png) [@mswas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mswas)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2009, 6:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anybody-beaten-a-tow/500297/50 "2009-06-20T06:58:23Z")
It’s amazing to me that a predatory towing company can’t just be charged with grand theft auto at the outset. ---
**Author:** ![Acid\_Lamp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/d6d6ee/32.png) [@Acid\_Lamp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acid_Lamp)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2009, 12:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anybody-beaten-a-tow/500297/51 "2009-06-20T12:04:36Z")
If you want to live dangerously, find the lot and take your vehicle back. FWIU You can’t be charged for stealing your own property, but you could accumulate a bunch of other stuff, like trespassing, breaking and entering, and vandalism. I know of at least one guy who simply went to the yard after hours, cut the lock off the gate and left after re-securing it. The cops were called, but ultimately the company couldn’t prove that it ever actually had the vehicle in it’s possession. The lot had no surveillance, nor overnight attendant. ---
**Author:** ![Snnipe\_70E](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b5a626/32.png) [@Snnipe\_70E](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snnipe_70E)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2009, 2:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anybody-beaten-a-tow/500297/52 "2009-06-20T14:01:56Z")
> [@Zsofia](#): > > Urban business. Two hours street parking. The parking that’s technically “their” parking is two blocks away and unsafe. And also extremely difficult to get a big van into. _I_ don’t want him parking at “his business”. > > I just don’t think they should be allowed to tow you without adequate signage that specifies under what cirucmstances they tow. “2 Hour Parking, Violators Will Be Towed” and there’s a sign at each entrance? Fine. Fair. The store owners property ws being used by someone who was not a customer, so a lot of the blame go to the van owner. But In San Jose, CA Every drive way has to have a sign before they can leagally tow. Check to see what the towing laws are in your city. You are better off paying the tow fees while they are small and then go to SCC. Go after both the property owner and the tow company. ---
**Author:** ![bathsheba](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/9e8a1a/32.png) [@bathsheba](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bathsheba)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2009, 12:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anybody-beaten-a-tow/500297/53 "2009-06-21T00:09:18Z")
> [@Martin\_Hyde](#): > > One of the city councilman ultimately called the towing company and informed them that the church in question was having video surveillance installed on their parking lot and that the presence of any vehicles from their company on said lot, at any hour of the day, would be considered criminal trespass and that any removal from said lot would be investigated by the police as auto theft. How is it not theft (and maybe even extortion) in this case? Lawyers, please. ---
**Author:** ![ParentalAdvisory](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/53a042/32.png) [@ParentalAdvisory](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ParentalAdvisory)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2009, 1:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anybody-beaten-a-tow/500297/54 "2009-06-21T01:01:29Z")
What if you’re about to get towed, but are not yet on the truck or hooked in any way. Can you take off? What if the tow guy insists he’s taking your car, and not yet hooked? Cool to flee? ---
**Author:** ![Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/earl_snake-hips_tucker/32/3269_2.png) [@Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Earl_Snake-Hips_Tucker)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2009, 1:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anybody-beaten-a-tow/500297/55 "2009-06-21T01:45:01Z")
> [@bathsheba](#): > > How is it not theft (and maybe even extortion) in this case? Lawyers, please. IANAL. But I suspect there’s some information missing here. Possibly, signage that indicates “Unrestricted parking during church hours. By permit only at other times.” Also, we don’t know what kind of local ordinances might empower the tow-ers. The case in point was definitely not during “normal church hours,” and the violator did not have a permit. Anyway, to reiterate, I think some info is missing. ---
**Author:** ![Anaamika](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Anaamika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anaamika)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2009, 3:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anybody-beaten-a-tow/500297/56 "2009-06-21T03:27:38Z")
I once parked my car across the street in my apartment complex. It was in a parking lot, on the complex grounds, and it was in a place where about 20 spots were but only 3-4 people ever parked. My car was broken down and I didn’t have the money to pay for it, so I parked it in the furthest corner possible and left it for a couple of weeks. They towed it. I had to pay for the tow, pay for it to get towed to a mechanic, pay for the repairs, and only then bring it home. I think that was pretty unfair - no one ever used those spots, and the car wasn’t bothering anyone. But they can tow your car pretty much from anywhere if it’s not on your property. We had no legal rights, and just sucked it up and paid and hitched up our belts for a while. Tow companies are bastards and they don’t care a whit what your story was. They are just in it to make a buck. Thank goodness I have my “own” property to park on now. ---
**Author:** ![Jilaad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e8c25b/32.png) [@Jilaad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jilaad)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2009, 4:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anybody-beaten-a-tow/500297/57 "2009-06-21T04:12:04Z")
This happened back in college. My roommate was parked in a spot in our apartment complex. There’s a wooden post in front of the spot that used to have a sign attached, but the sign wasn’t actually there - and hadn’t been for the two whole years I’d lived there. It’s always just been an empty post. Well the car got towed, the tow company claiming it was parked in a handicapped spot. They didn’t accept “but the spot was wholly unmarked” as a valid excuse. Unfortunately for the tow company, roommate’s dad is chief of police of one of the larger cities in the state. The car was returned later that day. The tow company was investigated for corrupt practices and was eventually shut down. ---
**Author:** ![alphaboi867](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alphaboi867/32/3898_2.png) [@alphaboi867](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/alphaboi867)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2009, 11:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anybody-beaten-a-tow/500297/58 "2009-06-21T23:11:24Z")
> [@Markxxx](#): > > …If I was the OP, I would go to whoever owns the lot and work out some sort of payment agreement where he could pay the owner and park there legally from now on. They could give him a sticker for his car or something, and he could expense the parking fee for his business… Is this business a mom & pop or a corporate chain store? If it’s the latter then the owner is a corporation and it’s unlikely anybody at the store (including it’s manager) has the authority enter any kind of agreement. Stuff like this is handled at a corporate level and corporate prefers to have the same policy in place at all locations. My pet peeve is people who decide it’s okay as long as they park “out of the way” :rolleyes: which just happens to be infront of our dumpsters. Even that’s not a problem _except on trash day_. The dumptruck pulls into the lot, sees a car blocking it’s path, driver calls store on his cell asking if someone will move it, it doesn’t belong to anybody actually in the store, dumptruck drives away and doesn’t come back untill next week. :mad: Even if corporate didn’t make us wait 24 hrs before calling a in a tow we still end up with an overflowing dumpster since they won’t wait or come back. ---
**Author:** ![Martin\_Hyde](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/47e85d/32.png) [@Martin\_Hyde](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Martin_Hyde)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2009, 9:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anybody-beaten-a-tow/500297/59 "2009-06-22T09:40:38Z")
I would assume from a legal standpoint it is indeed theft–in fact I’m fairly confident as a non-lawyer that in the town where my tale happened it would most definitely constitute theft. However the big hang up appeared to be that in the early stages the police simply refused to become involved, when they heard it was a “towing dispute” they simply informed the pastor it was a “civil matter, not a criminal matter.” Meaning he could sue but the tow truck drivers or the owner of the tow company wasn’t going to be arrested. I imagine if the police were 100% informed on the situation they would agree it was a clear case of outright theft, and may have pursued an arrest. However, until the police arrest somebody of a crime it typically won’t see the inside of a criminal court, and the police had dealt with so many complaints from people who got towed that the stock response was “it’s a civil matter.” My impression at the time this was all happening was that the police were just unwilling to get involved in a towing dispute and were unlikely to believe any story that an angry vehicle owner came up with–to them it was just easier and made more sense to refer it to the civil courts. ---
**Author:** ![Martin\_Hyde](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/47e85d/32.png) [@Martin\_Hyde](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Martin_Hyde)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2009, 9:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anybody-beaten-a-tow/500297/60 "2009-06-22T09:46:00Z")
[Here](http://www.csmonitor.com/2009/0108/p01s01-usgn.html) is an interesting article about predatory towing. Some Googling also suggested that prior to 2005 State legislatures were (apparently) somewhat limited in how they could regulate towing companies and the articles I’ve read seem to suggest this was the root cause of much of the “excess.” The article I linked to starts off by describing police action in Florida targeted at arresting unscrupulous tow truck drivers who were essentially just grabbing any vehicles they could in order to extort a towing fee. From everything I’ve heard this is a pretty common situation and I do not doubt at all that many tow companies essentially operate outside the law. In the heat of the moment with the looming fear of accumulating daily impound fees and the desperate need for one’s vehicle most people simply cave in and don’t think about it again. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anybody-beaten-a-tow/500297.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anybody-beaten-a-tow/500297.md?page=4)