Flickr.com photoAccording to this article in the Long Beach Press Telegram, "several complaints from the community" spurred a police investigation which uncovered blatant illegal actions by Mr. C's Towing of Los Alamitos...
The police in Long Beach took more initiative than most local police, it seems, when they actually parked an unmarked police car to see what would happen. Within 20 minutes, the car was towed. The same tow truck then proceeded to load up a Nissan pickup which had been parked less than five minutes.
These actions apparently constituted illegal towing, though the article doesn't say why. I assume cars parked in that area had more time to be parked than 20 minutes or 5 minutes.
The police not only arrested two tow truck drivers (Cole Bahlstrom, 32, and Walter Graham, 36) but also a security guard, Kabel Yan, 23, who were booked on grand theft auto and conspiracy. In Long Beach, towers are required to notify the police if they tow a vehicle. Also, the vehicles involved in these two incidents were not securely strapped down, which was described by police as "grossly negligent."
The matter is being handled--as it should be--by the departments Auto Theft Detail.
The article about this incident produced a lot of discussion in an on-line "Topix" forum related to the article, including some of the following observations.
* The victims of the scam were most likely students who attend a nearby college.
* In the old days, the penalty for a horse thief was hanging.
* This particular towing company has been crooked for a long time, and thank goodness the police finally did something.
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