Asheville, North Carolina Shines A Light On Predatory Towing

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Ever since All-Safe Towing & Recovery employees were arrested in a sting operation, towing cars they shouldn't have been towing, media scrutiny of the company has been intense...

In fact, the company is under so much scrutiny that local media wrote a story about the fact the company had changed locations, moving closer to downtown Asheville from "151 W. Haywood St. near River Road" because their lease on the property had "ended."

Yeah, "ended." That could mean a lot of things.

Normally, a business changing locations wouldn't merit this kind of media attention, but the tone of the story, click here, makes it clear the media isn't buying, at face value, the owner's explanation this move was routine and "nothing to (do?) with what's been going on."

What's surprising to me is the owner's claim he's been hired to "patrol two more downtown lots."

I'd love to know what Asheville businesses would hire these chumps, and I hope the reporter for this story, Jason Sandford, keeps digging.

My Stolen Van Ends Up At The Minneapolis Impound Lot (Info About Auto Theft Victims Compensation Fund)

Photo By John Hoff

Because this involved North Minneapolis crime, and happened to me personally, I...

...already blogged about this colorful episode at my other site, The Adventures of Johnny Northside. On that blog I had a bit of cathartic fun discussing the theft of my van, then its quick recovery, then those uncertain moments before retrieval at the impound lot when I didn't know if I was picking up my vehicle in one piece...or a claiming a charred hunk of metal.

The Minneapolis Crime Watch blog took note of my van theft episode, and described my posting as "full of snark," which was a compliment...um, I think.

But this blog, Towing Utopia Dot Com, is more about systemic reforms, especially the reduction of predatory towing. Yes, I have some fun, but my aim is very public policy-oriented, so I stick close to the nitty-gritty of towing. No need to go into detail about, for example, how it felt to find the rock which had busted my van window STILL IN MY VAN.

Leaving all that aside...and keeping in mind the full, colorful story of the van theft can be found on my other blog, along with a posting about some sensible security precautions I have taken in the wake of this incident, here are my not-overly-harsh, very helpful, policy-oriented critiques of the Minneapolis towing and impound system in light of this golden opportunity to put myself in the shoes of an auto theft victim.

Hey, wait...those are my shoes.

1.) Why was my van towed in the first place?

My vehicle was recovered the next day, a mere 7 blocks away at 2700 Dupont Ave. N.

In driving past this location, I note that anywhere it would have been parked was legal parking. According to the police report, officers simply ran the plate (probably having seen the broken window on the driver's side) and found the vehicle was "hot." So they called for an impound.

Why? Why didn't somebody just call me to retrieve my van? I seriously doubt the CSI folks were taking fingerprints off the steering wheel when I was told this was most likely juveniles on a gang-initiation joy ride.

2.) By what miracle was I informed about the Auto Theft Impound Fund?

The officer who called to tell me about the recovery of my van told me, verbally, about the Auto Theft Impound Fund. So I knew to ask at the impound lot. The clerk at the impound lot had to walk back to a little wooden shelf...she seemed to be sighing at the effort and exertion I was putting her through...and gave me a photocopied flier with some rudimentary information about the Auto Theft Impound Fund, and the steps I needed to take for compensation.

One step was to call Police Records to document the fact I'd made a report about the stolen vehicle. (612-673-2961)

"You don't have a copy of the report here?" I asked, and she looked at me like I must be just a bit soft in the head, to think the report about a stolen van would be in the same place as, well, the stolen van itself.

I had the sense if I hadn't asked about the Auto Theft Impound Fund, I never would have been told. I would have been an auto theft victim, now victimized TWICE: one by car thieves, once by the impound lot.

3.) Show me the money!!!!

I called up the City Attorney's Office for the form to seek compensation for the tow. (612-673-3549) Two things are required: proof I filed a police report, and proof the vehicle had insurance. I have both pieces of documentation ready to go, but I'm still waiting for the form.

Seriously, they have to MAIL it to me? With a STAMP? Made from the flesh of dead trees? Honestly, they can't email it to me as an attachment?

The police department records unit was able to send me my police report in an email...at least the "public portion" of the report, which was perfectly adequate. Why can't they email me this form I need to request compensation? I'd have the thing completed and mailed back by now.

On the bright side: there is a fund to compensate auto theft victims for towing, and somehow the system managed to provide me the information. I have nothing but praise for police officers who can recover a stolen vehicle in 24 hours. It's not like El Paso, Texas, where cars ended up across the river and you'd see the Mexican police driving what used to be your sports car.

4.) What about other jurisdictions?

My van only went seven blocks. Not only did it stay in the same city, but it stayed in the Hawthorne Neighborhood of North Minneapolis, and within the same police precinct. (And it was still towed! Where's the sense in THAT?)

I was told by one of my North Minneapolis neighbors about the time her vehicle was stolen and ended up in Brooklyn Park or Brooklyn Center, Minnesota. (I don't remember which "Brooklyn" it was, and those neighboring cities are two peas in the same civic pod)

TWO OR THREE YEARS LATER she received some kind of notice from an impound lot. By then, insurance had long ago compensated her for the vehicle.

In my case, I had no comp insurance because I tend to drive piece-of-junk vehicles. If my car had ended up in "one of the Brooklyns," or in St. Paul, or if it had been taken on a joyride to some other Minnesota city, most likely it would have been lost in the system. If it had left the state, it surely would have been lost. My past research on this subject tells me jurisdictions just don't share information very well, click here for article.

Which brings me to a kind of resolution: in 2008, I think this blog did a good job raising consciousness about the phenomenon of predatory towing. In fact, use of the phrase "predatory towing" seems to be increasing in the media, especially in all-important newspaper headlines.

However, the issue of "cross-jurisdictional sharing of towing data," one of the issues which first got me excited about doing this blog, apparently isn't sexy enough to be on the media's front burner.

Yes, there are folks like Ron Smith of Compiled Logic who are plugging away, every day, on that particular issue. But the media has yet to get excited about "Dude Where's My Car Syndrome" and write compelling stories about stolen vehicles lost in the system because jurisdictions--even those RIGHT NEXT TO EACH OTHER--don't share information.

Well, in 2009 I have to get the media excited about DWMCS. (Dude Where's My Car Syndome) I have to find ways to highlight the problem of jurisdictions not sharing information about stolen vehicles very well, leading to inefficiency and economic loss.

I'll do it. By golly.

5.) Towing victims everywhere

A trip through the automotive jailhouse is bleak and depressing. There are acres of vehicles, each of these a story of despair and fury, each an economic drain to the owners and, therefore, to our city and state economy. We, as a civilization, can't afford to be this inefficient.

I re-commit myself to this "Towing Utopia" effort because, for one thing, I see results: the media has embraced the term "predatory towing." The next logical step, once you know predatory towing exists, is to ask "how can there be reform?" So just by spreading this single term around, I'm changing the whole culture.

But with a bloggy soap box on which to stand and shout, much greater reforms are possible...and I feel like the frustrating theft of my van was not without some higher purpose.

Proof Of Reincarnation In Dallas: Lone Star Towing Tries To Come Back Under Other Names

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According to an article in the Dallas Morning News, click here, officials in Dallas are trying hard to avoid another "vehicle-towing debacle" during Cotton Bowl festivities.

An entity called "Lone Star Towing" was...

...associated with a big PR black eye for the city of Dallas due to a previous incident. As discussed here on Towing Utopia, (click for blog post, and also click here) the company snatched vehicles under dubious excuses, and many locals suspect individuals who were associated with Lone Star created "towing traps" to lure the unwary.

Now the article in the Dallas Morning News discusses Lone Star using a tactic common in the predatory towing biz...though the article doesn't make mention of the bigger national pattern, or how common this tactic is. But the article does point out individuals associated with Lone Star--now apparently defunct due to its license being revoked--are trying to come back as "Champion Tows" and "Ideal Towing."

Some other information I picked up, hanging around the virtual gas stations of the internet, says both businesses are located at this address:

8035 East RL Thornton Boulevard, Dallas.

Good to know.

Meanwhile, public officials in Dallas are engaged in a classic case of locking the barn door after the horse has been stolen, closely watching to make sure predatory towing doesn't happen during the Cotton Bowl even while Lone Star reconstitutes itself under their very noses.

You can't get rid of "bad apples" in the towing business, at least not in the present historical period of poor regulation. Only systemic changes will make a difference, especially those changes which use technology to track what is happening with towing, and make the information available to all concerned in the "towing life cycle."

Click here for an article in which "towing life cycle" is used as a term. Love that term. It's so...holistic.

P.S. Am I the only one who notices that ugly Gap billboard ruining the Dallas skyline in the photo above?

No...no, it can't just be me.

Owner Of Desert Automotive Specialists Arrested For Predatory Towing. AGAIN.

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Only several months ago, some folks would still ask me "what is predatory towing?" Now I'm reading headlines about suspects getting ARRESTED for it...

In California, the company called "Desert Automotive Specialists" has been the source of so many darkly-comic stories, all of this stuff dutifully reported by local television station KESQ. My personal favorite episode in that part of the country was when curbs were painted red to justify illegal tows.

Now comes word from KESQ of further arrests for "predatory towing," click here for article.

The station did a fine job running all four mug shots of the suspects. Some media entities might just publish one, and give the other (alleged) criminals a break, but KESQ allowed the public see what these thugs looked like under the spotlight.

And it's not a pretty sight.

Springfield, Massachusetts Towing Scandal Threatens City Government

Image Contributed By "Way Cool 311 Jim"

I wouldn't want to close the greasy books on 2008 without one more post about the Springfield Towing Alliance, the subject of so much interesting ongoing scandal in Springfield, Massachusetts. I've blogged about this messy, almost-darkly-comic situation quite a bit already, click here, and also here.

But now things in Springfield have REALLY taken a serious turn...

The municipal government's functions are imperiled by spin-off from the scandal. How this came about is complicated and a bit hard to follow, but explained pretty well by two excellent articles in The Republican. Click here for the article by Dan Ring, and then click here for a subsequent article by Jack Flynn. (A reporter's name if I ever heard one)

This much I gather from the articles: Springfield has a $52 million dollar loan from the state. They're asking for additional time to pay back the loan, described as a "bail out." According to Flynn's article, the state "imposed a five-member Finance Control Board and stripped city officials of authority over municipal finances." OUCH!!!!!

The governor of Massachusetts, Deval Patrick, is willing to work with the city, but he's being opposed by two legislators. One of the legislators, Cheryl Coakley-Rivera, seems to be involved in legitimate political horse-trading, asking for stuff like requiring a residence requirement for new city employees. The really inexplicable opposition comes from a legislator named Benjamin Swan. He's apparently willing to let city functions come to a screeching halt because, oh gee, some report hasn't been released yet about the Towing Alliance scandal, and how well the city handled that matter.

Well, guess who owns Swan? The Springfield Towing Alliance. From the sound of things, they have clear title to Swan's soul. The president of STA, Robert L. Jones, has contributed money to Swan and Swan has rented property to Jones. And yet Swan has the nerve to say he wants the city to be "fair and objective" in the awarding of contracts.

Swan claims he is "waiting for the state Inspector General's office to complete a review" of the situation with the Towing Alliance, and their loss of the contract for, well, massive malfeasance. (Well, Swan didn't say that LAST part. He is keeping an open mind, it appears, even though the Towing Alliance lost in court, so what is there to review?)

Though you wouldn't think two legislators could impact the fate of a bill so completely, apparently that's the way the votes stack up. While Swan "couldn't be reached for comment" (Dude, check the impound lot) the situation is being described as a "perfect storm" which will cause layoffs and service cutbacks if loan relief doesn't pass.

Ah, Springfield. I'm sure when it's spring, I'll still be writing about Springfield.

Towing Tops The Gripe List At West Virginia University, Morgantown

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According to a recent article in The Charleston Gazette, click here, college students in Morgantown usually have three main areas of concern: parking, TOWING, and landlord issues.

Their student government is speaking up for them at the state legislature, trying to have influence on legislation...

These student leaders have proposed that tow truck drivers should be required to take some other form of payment besides cash and, oh gee, stop operating on "a policy of intimidation and fear."

I don't know. Sounds like asking for a lot.

The article cites the example of a female student who was (apparently) shaken down for $150 cash, and the driver wouldn't show her the towing company's rates. This sounds very similar to a story I documented in Minneapolis, click here.

Also, storage fees for the first 24 hours after an impound is "killing" students, according to Jason Parsons, student body president.

Notably, this is the first West Virginia story to hit my blog. These student leaders just put their state on the Towing Utopia map.

Signs Of The Predatory Towing Times: "Tow Jack" Included In Urban Dictionary Dot Com

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My little contribution to the culture wars: I submitted "Tow Jack" to Urban Dictionary Dot Com, and it was (be still, my foolish heart!) approved and included. Click here for a link.

That wasn't hard, actually. Unlike...

...some contributors to the site, who appear to make stuff up and hope it will be approved for inclusion, (you know who you are) I only submit phrases which I've noted in common usage. And "tow jack" is one such phrase.

Here's an example, click here, where one commenter used the phrase, as in "Sergeant's Towing TOW JACKED a woman in labor."