St. Louis Post-Dispatch Rips The Lid Off An Ugly Towing Scandal

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A complex controversy has emerged in St. Louis, Missouri, which has already caused the resignation of a police chief...

An excellent article by three reporters at the St. Louis Post-Dispatch lays out the sordid details, including these choice nuggets:

1.) The impound lot of S&H parking looks like "a prison for cars," with razor wire topped fences and--good grief!--guards in elevated towers standing watch. A photo taken by Dawn Majors of the Post-Dispatch shows a sign with a snarling German Shepherd, warning "GUARD DOG ON DUTY."

2.) (Former) Police Chief Joe Mokwa has resigned in the wake of the scandal and questions about his creditability but not to worry! He walked away with a $100k severance package.

3.) The chief's daughter and "an unknown number of officers" received the free use of impounded vehicles for years. This is not an allegation, but an admission of the Police Board.

4.) The city's towing director, Denney Hunter, wrote a memo (obtained by the newspaper) directing the choice cars to be towed to S&H Parking--which is at the center of the scandal--and the crappy, inoperable cars went to the city tow lot.

5.) This worked out nicely, since S&H was allowed to keep vehicles unclaimed after 30 days once they "attempted to contact" the vehicle's owner. Yeah, I bet those were some really listless attempts. How did S&H work out this sweetheart deal? A former police officer named Gregory Shepherd, who came loaded with experience and a heroic reputation for drug busts, spent the last two years of his cop career dealing with his department's Asset Forfeiture unit.

This unit dealt with cars seized as part of a crime. When he left the department, Shepherd brought his experience, insight and contacts to S&H, which soon built a lucrative business dealing with seized vehicles.

6.) The vehicles were sold through Parks Auto Sales. S&H paid only half the towing fee to the city and kept various surcharges. This deal was described as "unusual" when compared to the deal worked out with another (less favored) entity called Bill's Wrecker.

7.) There were instances of employees being told they had to wait outside the office because Police Chief Mokwa was inside, meeting with S&H owner William Bialczak and Shepherd, the towing operation manager. (To be perfectly objective, I don't see an issue with this. Lower ranking employees are often barred from meetings of higher-ups. I've witnessed this all my adult life and I expect to continue witnessing it)

8.) Even after turning over the really sweet cars to S&H, the St. Louis tow lot still averaged over a million dollars a year in profit. OK, that's just obscene. Towing lots should be run in a break-even manner, not a source of squeezing blood from citizens. Shame on you, St. Louis.

9.) Parks Auto (the entity selling the seized vehicles) gave the Chief's daughter, Aimie Mokwa, a 2000 Dodge Neon, which she wrecked in 2002. Parks sold Aimie Mokwa three vehicles in the next five years for prices "far below wholesale value." The Post-Dispatch uncovered the car accident, which helped to show the police chief wasn't telling the whole truth when he said he didn't learn of his daughter's (frequent) use of S&H cars.

The (former) police chief now says he "might have known about it sooner but didn't think much of it at the time." OK, think about this: a business entity run by somebody who is (reportedly) one of your best friends...a guy who invites you to his son's wedding...gives your daughter a new car. She wrecks the car. She proceeds to get more cars at a steep discount. But you don't think much of it?

This is why the chief resigned. This is why he lost creditability with his board. Because Aimie Mokwa wrecked a car. That's how the whole mess unraveled.

This is the first towing scandal I've blogged about coming out of the state of Missouri. Oh, sure, I blogged about a mud-bog parking lot, and Missouri did get mentioned in the comprehensive Minneapolis report about abusive booting practices. But this is the first big Missouri story to hit www.towingutopia.com.

Thanks, S&H Parking for putting Missouri on the map when it comes to abusive and predatory practices in the towing industry.

Now I just need to do my usual thing: point out this is not a local phenomenon, but part of a national pattern of predatory towing practices.