Well, I'm finding out more about the little towing scam that was pulled on me yesterday afternoon. I just had a nice chat with a gent who works for the Van Nuys Police who among other things, told me that this particular towing company was one that has had a long, long list of complaints against it. An Internet search I just did turned up some news stories that bear this out. One in particular said that the company was being sued because its drivers were operating under "blanket authorizations." That is, they would obtain the okay of a property owner to tow any car they found parked on that owner's private property. As I read Section 22658 of the Vehicle Code (thank you, Internet), you can't do this. A towing must be done in response to a specific complaint from the property owner. Here's the relevant section of the Vehicle Code…
A towing company shall not remove or commence the removal of a vehicle from private property without first obtaining written authorization from the property owner or lessee, or an employee or agent thereof, who shall be present at the time of removal. General authorization to remove or commence removal of a vehicle at the towing company's discretion shall not be delegated to a towing company or its affiliates except in the case of a vehicle unlawfully parked within 15 feet of a fire hydrant or in a fire lane, or in a manner which interferes with any entrance to, or exit from, the private property.
As far as I could see, no property owner was "present at the time of removal," and I'm skeptical that there was any written complaint. In fact, it's possible there was no specific verbal one, either. Perhaps the tow truck driver just went out cruising areas where his firm had these blanket authorizations, saw our cars there and started towing.
Here's another little squib of interest from Section 22658…
A charge for towing or storage, or both, of a vehicle under this section is excessive if the charge is greater than that which would have been charged for towing or storage, or both, made at the request of a law enforcement agency under an agreement between the law enforcement agency and a towing company in the city or county in which is located the private property from which the vehicle was, or was attempted to be, removed.
In other words, a private towing company impounding a car cannot charge more than the police towing service would charge. According to the guy I spoke to on the phone (who works for the police towing division), there are two charges involved here — towing and storage. Towing is $110, regardless of distance. Once the vehicle's wheels leave the street, it's considered "towed," whether it gets moved twenty miles or twenty inches. Then there's storage, which is $27.50 per day or for any portion of a day. So if my car had been towed all the way into the yard in Van Nuys and I picked it up the next morning, the company would not be legally allowed to charge more than $137.50.
If you'll recall, the driver said it would be $250 and then he suggested that if we gave him $125, he wouldn't tow it in to Van Nuys. So he lied to us about the higher fee to get us to cough up the cash there, rather than force him to make several trips to tow cars to Van Nuys. We were in a wealthy neighborhood and he was towing expensive autos, so he probably figured we'd have the money.
This is all quite interesting. The gent at the Van Nuys P.D. gave me some phone numbers I'll be calling. I'll let you know what happens.