Wow. Thats just sad.

And how much of that $170 does the city get as a kickback? Lame money-grab move that benefits everyone except the citizens the government is supposed to be of, by, and for.

The cops are mad because they didn't think of it first.

@xmarkd400x: I'm guessing none. It's probably one of those "Cars towed at owners expense" things. They know the owners of the lots, and people park there, and they put up a sign. If anyone is getting a cut of it, it's private owners. If the city was getting a cut, the police wouldn't have stopped them. The police would have also already erected signs for the parade at the same time all the other signs on the streets were posted.

Oh, Chicago towers.

A friend of mine had a stolen car recovered when overzealous Chicago towers towed it and called her from the registration in the glove box. She was glad to get the car back, but kind-of pissed about having to pay the towing fee.

I've heard of this before. Poor victimized owners of vacant lots are tired of their signs "being taken down" and tow a bunch of people's cars. But if it happens so often should be easy to photograph, right, and then you can vent your anger by pressing charges for vandalism, yup?

Parade's a one time event, but in general if people are parking somewhere, put someone there to charge them money. No need to get nasty by towing. Or you need the lot vacant in case aliens need a landing site?

Oh wait, wink wink, then it'd be $10 a car instead of $170. Got it. Each one of those people should sue in small claims court for $5000. And coordinate trial dates for the most convenient for them to testify as each other's witnesses, but make the tow company have to spend as many days as possible in court.

How is this not illegal seizure (a.k.a. grand theft)?

Wait, how is this legal? The cops stopped them from towing more cars because the signs wern't posted until after the fact. But these people still had to pay to get their cars back? How did the towing company and it's drivers NOT get charged with theft? And surely the police have the power to go there and enforce the matter by making them release the cars without charge and refund anyone who was already forced to pay.

This happens all the time in D.C. and the surrounding suburbs.

In fact, there's an entire website devoted to one such towing scam:
[www.frankstowing.com]

Another blog devoted to DC towing scams:
[arlingtonparking.blogspot.com]

And, an article about a 2005 crackdown on towing scams, which hasn't put a dent into the problem:
[dcist.com]

That was a quick sandwich. ;-)

This is nothing. A few years ago some of the impound lots were found selling cars for "scrap" to their family members after only 24 hours, when they were supposed to wait weeks before they scrapped cars.

At least these people got their cars back, and for only $170.

This is why us suburbanites don't drive into town.

@sharkd: Correction: CSI: Arlington focuses on abuses by DC-area parking enforcement, but it's in the same ballpark.

Reminds me of my own apartment complex. No signs posted of "unauthorized vehicles will be towed" -at all- and I wake up one morning to find my girlfriends car towed. Turns out that the office hadn't asked the towing company to tow cars in months and apparently had decided it would be a good idea to start again for no reason. They couldn't do anything about it other than give me a reduced next months rent, but I was forced to cough up the $250 towing fee out of my own pocket to get the car back.

@Git Em SteveDave displays attention-grabbing vanity: I know where I live (Springfield, MA) the towing companies put in a bid to do all city-towing. This sounds like city-towing (because of the parade). Part of the city-towing bid is kicking back some of the money to the city. Kind of like an "administrative fee". I want to say that Springfield gets roughly $30 per $120 tow or something like that (yes, outrageous).

I still think this is a similar instance, although I do not know the specifics of the issue at hand.

I've had a car towed 30 miles and it cost 60 bucks.

How in the hell does it cost 170 dollars to tow a car in town where they aren't going very far?

If anyone ever tried to touch my truck they'd get shot.

Then again I have a driveway and it's paid off.

Couldn't a person like, I don't know, sue in small claims court or something? I know that in Arizona, towing cars is illegal unless prominent signs in both English and Spanish are posted, but I don't know what the potential for recovery is if your car is illegally towed.

Honest - if there's one blanket of companies who deserve the worst company in America, it's tow companies. Sorry if any of you own or work for one, but that business practice is the sleaziest thing ever.
It burns me up when I SEE my car getting towed and they won't let it off the truck, so I have to RUN BEHIND THE TOW TRUCK to follow it to the lot TWO BLOCKS AWAY, and then still have to pay the "MINIMUM STORAGE FEE" of $200 in Boston because my car touched down in their lot for 30 seconds. What a serious fucking crock of bullshit. I have more respect for drug dealers and pimps.

@sharkd: I was just thinking about Franks Towing. This is why I'm always afraid when I park in DC.

It amazes me how police view some theft, like illegal towing and moving companies holding stuff hostage a "civil" matter.

@tedyc03: this is actually part of a wicked awesome advertising campaign for the new game Grand Theft Auto: Chicago

I live in the DC area and use to go to a bar in Arlington VA. A towing company use to always tow cars that parked in a funeral homes' parking lot. Kind of crazy if you ask me. Not like there are many funerals or bussiness at 11:00pm-2:00am on Saturdays.

I'm sure it was an accident ;-)

I suspect this type of thing is pretty widespread. Just like fast parking meters. How the heck is can a modern digital parking meter still be so inaccurate without tampering? It's not like the old days where they were wound up. The bulk are electronic.

To those of you asking "How can they do this?" the answer is in the title: It's Chicago.

Towing abuse is legendary in Chicago, the late, great Steve Goodman wrote a song about it called 'The Lincoln Park Pirates'. It's funny, if you know where you car is.

@weakdome: I could be wrong but I think i read somewhere that it's actually a law that a tow truck must release the car if an owner shows up as long as the owner can pay a certain percentage of the towing fee on the spot. so tow trucks know that if they tow it all the way back to the lot, they've got you for $200 rather than $50 or so to release the car.

Pay the towing charge with a credit card and then dispute the charge with your credit card company.

@xmarkd400x: Yes, we have city and and private tow companies, but private companies often work under contract with the city.

Our equivalent to Franks Towing is Lincoln Towing. They are evil.

Actually, Chicago uses this scam more for parking tickets. The city puts up temporary no parking signs for street cleaning between 8-10 p.m. the evening before, when everyone is home for the evening and parked. First thing the next morning they ticket everyone on the street. The funny thing is that they only actually clean the street 1 out of 4 times they put up the sign.

@edrebber: Impound lots don't take credit cards for this very reason. Cash only.

And this is why I plan to go without a car as soon as I get myself into a situation when I can- no car, no tow.

Reminds me of Philly. There they just lie about the time when they write you the ticket and have you towed.

I parked on the street where the sign clearly stated that parking was allowed till 7 am. I came to move the car at 6:40 am and it was gone. Called police and was notified that it was in the impound lot. Had to wait till 9am to get the ticket, pay the ticket and get the car released from impound lot. Time on the ticket? 7:15am.

The late Chicagoan Steve Goodman wrote a song: The Lincoln Park Pirates about just such a scam. Worth looking up and listening to if you have time.

@ElvisAndretti: It is a classic/required listening for anyone who has ever had a car towed in Chitown.

If one of these companies tried to pull this on me, I'd find out where that tow truck parks at 4 am and slash their tires.

@ElvisAndretti: That's actually about a specific towing service, the legendary Lincoln Towing; Mike Royko wrote about them several times, incurring at least one lawsuit (which he won).

Rendered Services has been accused of illegal towing before: [enchantedworldofrankinbass.blogspot.com]

One of my friends in Pharr saw a tow truck driver shot 8 times a few years back. Shouldn't have tried towed that drug dealer's car (illegally no less) without figuring out whom it belonged to I guess.

One minute my friend hears some arguing outside the window of his wage slave job, peeks out the window after the shots to a bloody mess of a person (definitely closed casket) and somebody driving off.

@Underpants Gnome:

My personal experience shows that to be true even if you call for a tow. Glad I have a friend with a trailer truck now.

I live a little over an hour from Chicago, and go there quite often. They are also known for mailing you parking tickets from areas you haven't even been in. (Otherwise wouldn't it just be on your car?)
It's just a lot easier to drive 20 miles to the train station and then take the Metra right into the city. Then you hop onto one of the free shuttles around the station.

Sounds like to me the tow company needed some money to pay for the fuel for the tow trucks.

I've tried to be nice in my posts and not use foul language all that much, but when it comes to towing companies...

F*ck tow-truck drivers and their shady practices.

Tow truck drivers are less than human.

@ARP: I can back this up. More than once I've had to scramble to move my car first thing in the morning because the street cleaning signs went up after midnight the night before. It's incredibly telling that all these parking ticket matters are handled by the city Department of Revenue.

My neighborhood (Rogers Park) has had a huge glut of handicapped-only spaces designated in the last six months, and it really seems to me to be just another revenue scam. Why? There are four such spots in front of my apartment building, and I know for a fact that there are not that many disabled people living there! The parking situation is disastrous enough here, and now they have to make it even worse to squeeze blood from the stone.

This story doesn't surprise me in the least, but it sure gets my blood boiling after previous encounters with the nefarious Lincoln Towing Company. Sure, put up a big sign saying "PUBLIC PARKING LOT" and hide the towing sign behind two grate fences and a shrub - you're in the clear! Or put a tiny sign three stories up on a building across from the lot! Aces! (These are both situations I've personally encountered.) I really, really wish Chicagoans would group together for a class action suit against their ridiculous and blatantly abusive practices, and group in the Department of Revenue for collusion. Nothing of value would be lost.

*deep breath* Wow. Sometimes I wonder why I even own a car in this city.

Chicago departments don't talk to each other and the Dept. of Streets and Sanitation is notorious for taking down legitimate, temporary signs, every 6 hours, claiming that whatever other city department issued the sign didn't authorize it with them, so it is possible the tow company was truthful and had actually put up the signs the requisite 72 hours ahead. That does not excuse them from re-posting the signs after the cars had parked there. And I don't honestly believe that they even thought of posting the signs before people parked there. It's just not completely impossible.

@Underpants Gnome: They did take credit cards once upon a time. About fifteen years ago, a friend of mine whose car got towed went to retrieve it, and the clerk at the lot returned card after card, saying that they were coming up void.

It turns out she was such a poor reader that she couldn't differentiate between the words "Void" and "Valid."

Life. No parole. Then we'll see who wants to play hardball

The night before the LA Marathon a few years ago, I was parked outside USC, and was there until late. I come outside, and the entire street had been cleared of cars, including mine. No signs anywhere. We followed one of the trucks the the impound lot, and they wouldn't release my car then; I had to wait until the next morning, so I had to get driven home by my friend who lives nowhere near me.

The next day, after waiting for the marathon to clear up, I got my car back from the lot. They waived the impound fee because, you know, there was no warning about this, and they acted like they were doing me a huge favor. I wanted to punch them in the balls.

I parked in Pilsen. No signs posted.

Returned from a weekend away sans a car -- they towed it and claimed signs were up. They weren't.

...Then...

I got about five tickets for parking in a bus stop - even though the signs were removed due to construction. Nothing but bolts in the ground.

Signs, signs, everywhere a sign...that Chicago is broke, and our taxes are the highest in the country. Thanks.

@xwildebeestx: What about the ones who come get your car when it breaks down on the highway? A portion of workers in every occupation under the sun are scumbags, but that's no reason to condemn the whole lot.

Hmmm ... I wonder if you could pay with a Credit Card, and then initiate a Chargeback

@TakingItSeriously: Addressed above. None of them take credit cards anymore, presumably partially for this reason. They're scammers who want your money, plain and simple.

jackal676 is correct that people like highway towers perform a necessary duty, but the guys who just impound your car and ask you for cash are, invariably, the worst scum of the earth.

@darkryd: Ah, towing companies... good time to pull this one out of the archives:

[www.telegram.com]

Involves a load of lobsters in a crashed truck, one local towing company, and enough emergency responders to tie up the road for 12 hours.

@ARP:
@Ubik2501:

I call bullshit on da boat uh yuse!
I live in Rogers Park & they always put the signs up early the day before & sometimes 2 days before street sweeping.
Do you actually believe city workers are out late at night putting up street sweeping signs?
HA!
Those lazy assholes from Streets & San don't do shit shit after 3PM unless they're on overtime.
Just watch all the garbage trucks pull into the garage on Ravenswood at 2:30 every afternoon. Their "work" day is done!

What may be happening is that the signs were put up in the morning & ripped off by kids or other vandals soon after & someone on the block put them back up.
I've done that on my block [near Sullivan HS] & so have my neighbors.