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Happened to me when my car was legally parked while I was at a meeting in a church. A teenager hit my car and knocked it up on the sidewalk. But the police on the scene didn't even CALL a tow truck. A company that listens to the public safety band on their own radio just showed up at the scene, told the police I sent them (?), and the police let them take my car. I arrived on the scene to see my car being driven down the street and the officer handed me a business card of the tow company for some reason he believed I had called. The card didn't even have an address on it!
The tow company didn't respond to my phone calls until morning. Turns out it was not merely a tow company but a body shop and they assumed I was going to let them repair the car. When I said, no, I would be sending another tow truck to pick up my car immediately, they tried to hold it hostage for a tow payment. But I got a lawyer to call them and say he was going to have them charged with stealing my car if the didn't give it back to me. So they allowed me to send a tow truck to pick it up. But when I got it back, it was without the front bumper (the car had been hit in the rear) and the license plate that they had removed from the back. I went back to my property and they claimed both items were on the car when my repair company took the car. I had no way to prove that wasn't true. I got out of paying them for the tow but I had to get a new bumper and a new plate for my car.
The towing business is definitely a dirty one - they'll do most anything they can to hold your car to charge you extra and stuff like they did to you to further detain you and "coerce" you into using their other services. It's outrageous what they can do.
The towing business is definitely a dirty one - they'll do most anything they can to hold your car to charge you extra and stuff like they did to you to further detain you and "coerce" you into using their other services. It's outrageous what they can do.
When I was 18, friend and I were out for a drive and got pulled over. Seems the registration on the car my friend had expired at midnight that day. It was now 12:10AM so technically it was expired. Car got towed and we ended up walking home.
Went to get the car the next day and the tow truck company tried to argue that they made the tow at 11:45PM and wanted TWO days of storage before they would let the car out. It took a lot of arguing to the point that the car wouldn't have been towed if the registration was valid, and at 11:45 it technically way. Plus the ticket said 12:10AM as well. Still, they put up a stink and wanted 2 days.
Don't you have insurance? They should cover all this cost. Plus the car is totaled, so you don't want the car back, right? Call your insurance company and get them moving.
Today my wife got in a wreck. She was rear-ended, the offender drove away, your classic "hit and run." The car was off the road in the parking area of a business. I wasn't there, but she tells me the police called so & so wrecker to get the car out of there, not giving her the option of us calling our towing company, we have wrecker service for that sort of thing.
I tracked down who it was, and even if we were to have gone today with a tow truck to claim it, they wanted some $400 for "storage," for not even but half of a day. However, if we surrender the title to the vehicle, they won't charge anything. (The car was totaled, and as it was a 2004 we paid $1600 for, there was no collision.) When I asked how come the police had this done vs giving my wife the chance to call the wrecker, he stated the police do what they do and don't give you a choice.
(1) Is it true that in that situation you have to just tolerate the police choosing whomever they please, you have no say in the matter? I mean it's YOUR CAR, and it's not on the road, it's off the road out of the way. What's the rush, so long as you don't leave it there for days on end? Why would a person want some other outfit towing your car off if they have towing service they'd paid for and can use for that?
(2) Why in the WORLD would we have to pay some $400 for claiming it on the same day? That's a TREMENDOUS amount of money.
(3) Does this practice sound "par for the course?" This sounds like a rip-off, you're hit by a hit and run driver, the police tow it without giving you a chance to call your own service, and then you have to pay $400--all at a time when you were minding your own business and were hit by someone else.
Thoughts?
(1) That's been my experience. When I was in an accident, I asked the officer if I could call AAA or my insurance company to tow my car. He told me that it would take too long and the contract wrecker was already on the way.
(2) They're charging you for the tow. I've never known anyone who could get their car back the same day. There's always a reason. If that reason doesn't sound good enough, they come up with another.
(3) Yes, that sound par for the course.
"... if the police officer had told her that she needed to sign over custody of our kids and have her eyes gouged out, she'd absolutely done it and later said "he told me I had to."
That's a rather uncharitable thing to say. She called you first and you didn't answer.
Thankfully, no expert and/or experience with this type of situation, Shyguylh . . . however, I smell a little "ca ca" with your experience. What was the Big Rush if your vehicle was on private property and not a safety issue and/or interfering with the flow of traffic?
Towing Fees should be no more than $200 (depending on the actual distance as low as $100) and there should be No Storage Fees if the vehicle is picked up on Day One.
Personally, I am a firm believer in The Squeaky Wheel Gets The Oil and this fiasco deserves exposure via local TV News plus a few calls to the Mayor's Office.
When the cop got on scene, she should have told him that she had already called a wrecker.
If the cop didn't ask, and an unknown wrecker showed up, she should have refused him permission to move the vehicle for the above reason.
Now that it is all said and done, I would guess (a) the cop exceeded his authority [what else is new], (b) the cop is getting a kickback, (c) she would not have a case in small claims court against the cop or the wrecking company because they will play "he said - she said".
If the OP has liability insurance, he should have uninsured motorist insurance. In most states, this covers property damage related to a hit-and-run with no deductible. It would make sense for it to cover towing charges as well.
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