Flickr.com photoI only recently found out about Sean Cruz and all his work in Oregon, which I blogged about in this post. Well, it turns out a predatory towing issue Sean was banging the drum about recently made some media march to battle to expose a shocking abuse of handicapped citizens happening in Portland. Here is the article..
...which shows every sign of being a result of Sean's handiwork from his original blog post about the outrageous scam, click here.
The long and the short of the scam went like this: There was a restaurant named McCall's, and it was no longer in business. But the restaurant's parking lot had some handicapped spaces, and a guy named Mike Meier, a paraplegic, parked there with his handicapped permit properly displayed. And he got towed...for not having a "special McCall's permit," or so he was told.
It turns out the towing company, Sergeants Towing, had been hauling vehicles away from that spot for half a year without any legal authority to do so.
Yes, Sergeants Towing once had a contract to patrol that particular parking lot...Oregon being the only one of the three West Coast states which even ALLOWS "patrol towing"...but the contract was no longer valid. The business which had contracted with the towing company wasn't even in that building anymore.
Think Of It As "Mineral Rights" To The Steel In Your Car
Tim Barrett, who focuses on predatory towing in the State of Oregon and has worked closely with Sean Cruz, says unscrupulous towing companies who are engaged in "patrol towing" look upon these contracts as "mineral rights." Even if the business which granted the "right" to patrol the lot ceases to exist, predatory towing companies see the lots as their "turf" and continue to tow cars...even when the lot is virtually empty! And, as it turns out, even towing from the handicapped spots.
Well, now Sergeants will have to pay back all that money. And it all happened because a paraplegic man STOOD UP FOR HIS RIGHTS and wouldn't let go of the issue for FIVE MONTHS. His hunch said something was wrong, and he wouldn't let go of that hunch.
Mike Meier, you the man.
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