If you’re from Chicago and have ever parked an automobile, this has probably already happened to you 6 times and you’ll be wondering why this story is even newsworthy. Feel free to go get a sandwich. For the rest of the country… The Chicago Sun-Times is reporting that hundreds of people who drove to the 79th annual Bud Billiken Parade got a nasty surprise when they found that a towing company had posted a notice after the parade started and towed all of their cars.
Motorists, residents and store owners in the area say a tow company waited until lots near the parade route were full of cars before posting towing notices and taking vehicles. Each owner had to shell out at least $170 to Rendered Services Inc. to retrieve their cars.
Police on the scene said they’d heard many radio calls about towing from vacant lots in the area, and most involved Rendered. Police said at one point they had to stop trucks from yanking the cars because the signage was erected after the 10 a.m. start of the parade.
Fun! The towing company claims that the signs were “posted and reposted and reposted,” but a local business owner told the Sun-Times, “They just put it up no less than an hour ago.”
Sweet home, Chicago.
Tow trucks swoop in on paradegoers’ cars [Chicago Sun-Times]
(Photo: John J. Kim/Sun-Times)
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@Greasy Thumb Guzik: I never said they always put them up late – in fact, they’re normally good about putting up the street cleaning signs a few days in advance. But I’ve seen at least half a dozen instances over the last year where signs were not up at all (meaning signs were not taken down and replaced later) until 9PM or later the evening before street cleaning. Whether this is due to error, shadiness or unruly teenagers is unknown, but it does happen.
I’d have reported my car stolen.
@taney71: That lot at least has signs saying that you can’t park there. I wouldn’t be suprised if there are some insurance issues involved when people are parking on your property. Although it would be much nicer than searching for street parking or going to one of the parking garages in that area.
And I’m sure that my friend who was towed from there (or maybe it was the IHOP lot) would appreciate some more parking options
If you have ever been stuck in downtown Chicago right as rush hour is starting, there is nothing as beautiful as the line of tow trucks lined up to start clearing the curb lanes of illegally parked cars. No zipping in and out of lanes because some idiot forgot to move the family minivan. I wish some other cities would consider doing the same (DC? Seattle?? Anyone listening???).
And who drives to a parade in Chicago? that is what the train is for!
@xmarkd400x: Somebody tows the whole city around? Man, that’d be some parade…
Quite a dick move!
Some people like to create their own opportunities.
Wow. I feel lucky about NYC. When I parked last in the village during a day where there was a parade, the city decided to tow all the cars on the street where I parked and move them. I called the police and they told us where all the cars were towed to. (A few blocks away on the street.)
Here in NYC they just give tickets for blocking street cleaning. The street sweeper just goes around the parked cars, problem solved and a big chunk of change earned. Why give a private company a cut when the city can keep it all?
Nothing has changed in 80 years, has it? The mayor’s office is still up to the same old tricks (in the sense of a paid whore, I mean).
Rendered Services Inc.? Renditioned is more like it.
@Ubik2501:
First you wrote between 8PM & midnite & the 2 minutes later it’s 9PM or later.
Which is it?
Streets & San doesn’t put street sweeping signs up that late, ever! The signs are put up by someone from the ward office & they’re all gone by 4:30!
You just didn’t see them or one of your neighbors, not me in this instance put them all back up.
And believe me, I’ve seen people park right in front of the sign on a Monday afternoon, telling them no parking Tuesday & then come out swearing they never saw the sign they parked in front of 16 hours earlier.
@weakdome:
In a lot of places, it’s illegal to tow an occupied car. To the point the tow truck driver legally has to unhook your car if you jump into it before he drives off with it. This is not a recommended act, since a pissed off tow truck driver is no joke. You’d have to check on local laws, but in extreme cases, it can work.
Something like this happened in San Antonio. I was going to a rock concert and everyone was told the lot to park in was for the Civic Center where it was at. There were no signs except the ones that say Concert parking Here.
Lo and behold when we got out of the concert several hundred cars had been towed.
I had to pay #350 to get back my car.
The ‘mysterious’ vandalism at that impound lot for several weeks following the concert remains a mystery.
@Greasy Thumb Guzik: Are we really going to argue semantics here? All I did was retype a post I thought had gotten eaten and used the wrong number. I’m sticking with 8PM here.
I distinctly recall more than once coming home from work at 7PM or later, with no signs anywhere in my area (several blocks from the train to my apartment), no signs present any time I was in the neighborhood earlier, and no signs of tampering. Then, either later in the evening or early the next day, the signs were up all over the neighborhood, some of them for exactly that morning.
I am not one of those people who deliberately misconstrues where and when the signs went up because I got a ticket. I have to park on the street because I don’t have a garage or a lot space, and am very diligent about looking out for street cleaning signs, notices, etc. concerning where I can and can’t park. They tend to make them big and bright enough that they can’t be missed anyway. All I’m saying is that, whatever the cause, I’ve seen this happen before.
Entirely non-Chicago topic: This sort of thing happened in my old college town in Indiana as well. I was paying for a parking spot near my dorm, near the construction site for a new school building. One night I went to my car to go grocery shopping, and lo and behold, not a car was there. They had, without notice, changed the parking lot to construction crew only, ticketed every student parking there, and towed them to another lot without any sort of notification except for being billed through the mail. And I was paying for that damn spot. They refused to refund me for anything when I disputed it, too. That sort of thing is just heinously unethical.
This story is typical. When I lived in Chicago they’d post up random street cleaning signs less than 24hrs in advance and never on the same day or time. If you used public transportation during the week, you’d be in for a nasty surprise on the weekend when returning to your car if you parked on the street. Each ticket is $60. Three unpaid tickes = a boot. Not doing anything about the boot in 24hrs = car goes to the pound. ($150 towing fee plus $10 per day for storage.) If your car is in the pound more than 15days, they will crush your car. BTW, when your car is at said pound, they will jack your car open and drive it around the lot.
I’d just emailed the site about another parking issue in Hartford about a month ago. Long story short, I went to park in a lot that was quite clearly supposed to be open, but unattended. As my experience had always been that the lot was free if that happened, I parked and went on my way. So imagine my surprise (and a bunch of other drunks) to find out that everyone had been towed. Good luck getting a ride at 2 AM, because (naturally) they towed all the cars to Berlin (probably a good 20-25 minutes away), so the mileage fee was almost as much as the towing fee. At least I was able to scrape together the $130.
In the future, though, I recommend anyone forced to pay unjust parking fines heed the advice of the Upright Citizens Brigade… ass pennies.
Not surprised at all. I was in Chicago for Lollapalooza and the garage under Millennium Park had a sign posted that Special Event Parking was $25. After the show when we went to pay the automated kiosk the sign had changed to $30. The next morning it was back to $25.
That is a shady town where parking enforcement is concerned.
@AgentTuttle: If you call the police and report your car stolen they will just tell you what impound lot it is at. The police will NEVER help you, even if your car was towed 100% illegally. You will have to take them to court if you want your money/car back.
I don’t know about Chicago, but in Boston there are laws about the signage and how for special events and such that it has to be up x amount of days/hours BEFORE the event
@Greasy Thumb Guzik: I don’t get it. Here on the west coast street sweeping is on a fixed schedule and every street subject to it has permanent signs posted “No parking X AM to Y AM WEDNESDAY, etc.
Do they just do them randomly where you guys live and have to put up temporary signs each time??
lol tow companies… scumbags the lot of them!
I remember a local newsstory here where towtruck operators were collecting cars broken down on the side of the highway & then selling them for scrap at autowreckers. Imagine breaking down on the highway , leaving to get help, coming back to find your car gone & never knowing what happened to it. That some POS towtrucdriver snatched it up & sold it for a couple hundred bucks to an autowrecker & its now just a big cube of compressed metal.
illegal towing should be the same as grand theft auto
Am I the only one who’s taking this seriously?
@West Coast Secessionist: Some streets are fixed. Others are not. They’re trying to put in a system where there’s a flashing red light on the signs during times its a bad idea to park there. Of course, none of the signs are working.
@Greasy Thumb Guzik: I’ll vouch for my buddy @Ubik2501: that its happend in every neighborhood I’ve lived in. So, its happened in Logan Square, Bucktown, Wicker Park, East Village, Noble Square, and Lakeview (12 year Chicago resident). And no, the kids didn’t rip them down. 8p.m. the night before, no signs. 8 a.m. the next day, plenty of signs. Are you suggesting people take down the signs and put them back up. Even punk kids are too lazy to do that. Streets and Sant. are lazy, but if there’s money involved, they’re a little less lazy.
This sounds like private lots that have towing contracts. My favorite are the security guards that some property owners hire for parking lots. Those people will boot your car if you are 1 minute over your 30 minute parking are whatever. Its a joke.
@tinmanx: This happens with Chicago as well, in regard to monthly street cleaning. If you’re parked when street cleaning is scheduled, the sweeper goes around your car and you get a lovely bright orange parking ticket from the city’s department of revenue stuck on your windshield. What’s being discussed in this story isn’t about street cleaning.
Growing up in Chicago, we had many issues with this kind of trash.
Now that I live in California, outside of San Francisco, I’m constantly amazed at how much more laid back driving, parking and existing is here, haha.
@Eyebrows McGee: Was it a Jeep Wrangler by any chance?
This needs more coverage; Bud Billiken is a black parade.
Rendered Services Inc. preyed upon black parade goers – black parade-goers in a predominantly low income area of the city.
Speaking of shady arrangements that towers have with private lot owners in Chicago…how many of you have seen this one:
On Western there is a DMV in a tiny lot and there is a restaurant in that same lot. In my several years of living in Chicago, that restaurant has been closed (and not in operating condition) the entire time. Yet if you park in its reserved spots for the DMV (which people quite commonly try to do as there are NEVER enough spaces in that lot and people basically drive around the circular lot for hours waiting for a spot) a tow truck shows up 2 minutes later to haul your ass.
I’m willing to bet that it is more profitable and less work for the property owner to just get kickbacks from the tow company for everything they tow than it is to actually open the restaurant. Probably just a front to get towable parking spaces. Brilliant business model. Brilliant. I am so pissed I didn’t think of that.
Rendered Services is taking the towing business in Chicago to a new low, if that’s possible. CPS recently contracted with them to manage parking enforcement at schools, and they’ve been going around ticketing ANYONE parked in the lots, INCLUDING CPS staff who have permits properly displayed.
I hope there is a special level of hell reserved for these scam artists.
@Haltingpoint: Well that lot used to have a chinese place. I went there for lunch until the DMV moved in. Then you were unable to get parking and it pretty much closed because of the DMV. IIRC there is a dmv and an unemployment office in the same tiny lot now. What a terrible combination.