Chicago Impounds Your Car As Part Of "Investigation," Holds It Hostage
A class action lawsuit has been filed against the City of Chicago on behalf of people whose cars were impounded as part of a police investigation — and then charged outrageous fees to get their vehicles back. The lawsuit covers 15,000 people whose cars were impounded by the city over a five year period.
WBEZ Chicago interviewed someone whose car was impounded in a case of mistaken identity:
JARRETT: I come down, half of the Chicago Police department got the whole sidewalk blocked off.
The police wanted to know about her car. She was talking to the cops in the blue shirts when a commanding officer joined the conversation.
JARRETT: The white shirt got out. He said this car has an "APB" out on it. I said an "APB" for what. He said to seize the car and seize all occupants.
The car was taken and Jarrett says she spent about 26 hours in jail for what was essentially a case of mistaken identity. The detective who had put out the APB came to interview her.
JARRETT: She looked at me, she said you're not who I'm looking for. I said I know I'm not who you lookin for. I said, "who are you looking for?" She said, "your sister Sharrice Jarrett."
Jarrett says her sister is a drug addict who often uses her name when she's picked up by the police. Once that was figured out, Jarrett was released but she still had to get her car. She thought it was a simple mix-up that could be sorted out easily. She went to the impound lot and talked to an officer in the trailer by the gate and asked him for a hearing.
JARRETT: He said okay, I'll give you a hearing. So I'm thinking he fenna go get a judge. Somebody with some authority. He asked me, your name Vivian Jarrett...
PETERS: They're not hearings. You can call up and say you have my car and you should never have taken my car and I really shouldn't have to pay you any money for my car and by the way I have 25 witnesses including my priest and my husband's rabbi, it makes no difference who the witnesses are. You always lose.
From personal experience, I know that this can also happen if someone steals your car. After it's recovered — it can still mysteriously wind up in the impound.
Vivian Jarrett did eventually get her car back though it took almost two months and at $35 a day the storage fees added up quickly.
JARRETT: I got to pay you $2000 dollars for something that's legally mine and I broke no laws. That's crazy.
No, that's Chicago.
Lawsuit Critical of Chicago Police Car Impound Practices [WBEZ]
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Comments:
"Vivian Jarrett did eventually get her car back though it took almost two months and at $35 a day the storage fees added up quickly."
The whole impound concept is insane. I'm not asking you to store my car, asshole. I didn't want you to take it in the first place!
Wow....and here I was ashamed the city of St. Louis, Missouri was pulling that kind of crap. If it turns out the same way....there's a member of the police force working closely with the tow lot.
That happened to me, but not in Chicago. PD took my car to get it fingerprinted. Two weeks later, couple calls to arresting officer, LT and the Chief and I finally got it back.
This and the cold medicine case, it seems the state seems to care less for its citizens than companies care about its customers. The letter of the law and the income fiefdoms take hold over common sense.
Collusion!
Anyway, I remember getting my car towed in L.A. (HATE THOSE FUI@#%*&CJE PARKING PRICKS!). My friend was driving me by our house and I saw a car with the BOOT on it in the distance. I laughed and said, "look at that jackass with the boot!". Sure enough, it was my car, and I was the jackass. One night in the yard, $250 + tow fee (not including $700 in no front license plate tickets). Ridickadonkulous.
It's an ongoing scam. Most of those towing companies are scumbags unless contracted by another party (like AAA). Then the impound yards are a joke. 10 minutes inside = 24 hour charge. They all work together and (mostly) all love fucking people over because they can, and everyone expects to be bent over and screwed by them because almost nothing can be done about it. They all became awful once they realized that.
This post has brought up a lot of repressed anger.
IF CHICAGO TREATS YOUR CARS LIKE THIS, HOW DO YOU THINK OBAMA WILL HANDLE SOCIALIZED MEDICINE?!?!?!?
/hey, someone was going to say it sooner or later
Can you pay with a credit card then do a chargeback?
@madog: If your car wasn't blocking anything, why would they tow it? And is that $700 just because you didn't have a license plate in the front of your car? Why didn't they just put the summons on your windshield (again, assuming your car wasn't blocking something)? What was it about where your car was parked that made them tow it?
About 10 or 15 years ago, I accidentally (yeah, it was dark & raining, so I didn't see the "No Standing Anytime" sign) I parked in a No Standing Anytime spot. I went to L.A. for a few days and came back just before Christmas. On Christmas Eve I walk to where I parked the car and it wasn't there. Well, for parking there for more than a few days, they towed it. There were 3 or 4 tickets for the infraction plus a ticket for having a license plate cover. If I had checked on it the next day, all I would have gotten was the NSA ticket (and the license plate cover summons, if they saw it the first day). No tow. And no storage fees. At least they didn't charge me the $15 storage fee for Christmas Day.
Notwithstanding all that, they only take cash at the impound lot. And with the tow fee and storage, you need an armored car just to go get your own car back.
@morganlh85: Only if you're prepared to take on the municipal government's retributions (and the very same rules that they passed that would apply in a similar situation do not apply when they're directly involved)
@squinko: "OBAMA" STARTS WITH THE SAME LETTER THAT "CHICAGO" ENDS WITH.
THE "C" IN THE CHICAGO CUBS LOGO IS RED. COMMIE RED!!!
A similar incident happened to me when I was about 18. I lived in San Diego, and my car was stolen. When the police recovered it, they wouldn't even give me a chance to go get it, and just had it towed to a towing company's yard, not the police impound. I went to get my car, and was told, that same day, that it was like $350 to get it out. I ended up having to just let the damn thing go to them because they wouldn't give it back unless I paid up. I'm still bitter to this day about that, especially knowing now that I could have probably had a decent case for small claims court.
@gStein: THAT IS TOTALLY UNRELATED. OBAMA WILL MAKE US DREAM OF HEALTHCARE RAN BY IMPOUND LOT RULZ
/how was that?
This same crap happens in San Francisco. They will tow you when you are legally parked. Give tickets to people legally parked and tickets to people who have never driven in the city. I have seen all of this happen personally.
When they tow your car they make you sign a waiver when you pick it up that you will not dispute the fees or violation.
Chicago plans to pay off all its debt by impounding the cars of all attendees of the 2016 Olympics.
@michelsondl: Did you consider reporting the car stolen again? You know, for the lulz? Or at least being held hostage?
Mobile, AL circa 1993 my car was stolen and I mysteriously didn't find out it was recovered until 3 days had past and I had to pay a private tow company/impound lot contracted by the city $75 a day plus $50 tow fee and took me two more days to come up with the money and they wouldn't let me remove any of my property from the car - ruined around 50 tapes - dang vultures. What can you do to fight this sort of thing?
Even in Madison, WI the tow company (rhymes with shits) that the city uses acts as if they are above the law (and by all accounts treats their employees horribly too). In more than one instance when they ran out of room in their city lot, they've towed the car to the next city, over $20 or less parking tickets!
@morganlh85: Yeah, you can write a hot check, too. They know exactly who you are and will come after you for their money. They're worse than the mob...
The Atlanta PD stole my car one year at Christmastime. Some nimrod left his new Acura running at the top of girlfriend's driveway, and of course, hilarity ensued. The police towed my car, but never wrote, called, or sent flowers. A different officer got annoyed with me for reporting my jalopy stolen when I got home, as if I should have known where it was.
The nimrod's insurance complained bitterly, but ultimately paid the impound fees -- nearly $1000, since I was out of town and the APD handled the situation badly after I returned.
And I never did find out why the APD towed my car. At least, what their stated reason was -- I assume the real reason had to do with kickbacks. The incident only resulted in a bent wheel and a dented fender. I've seen worse sit on the side of the road for six months.
@G.O.B.: Come on!: COMMUNISM IS SOCIALISM AND IT'S EVIL. GLENN BECK TOLD ME SO. I MUST BE OFF TO BUY MORE PALLETS OF BULLETS.
Mmmm, Chicago corruption. Meh, we're SO used to it, it doesn't even phase anyone.
Just think of the revenue if we get the Olympics - so many more people to mistakenly ID or include in the round up.
This happened to our daughter, also in Chicago. She parked in the lot of a store that had gone out of business. It was night and she didn't see the faint paint on the brick wall around the corner. Cost her a bundle.
She has also gotten two year old parking tickets. It seems the parking people can just hold on to them and file then when they feel like it. How can you fight something that long ago?
I'll be interested in following this--she may eligible as part of the class.
Sounds like typical Chicago to me. Same crap happens all the time with every violation under the sun. Chicago PD seems to think 'Fine em all, and let god sort it out' is a good way to run their department.
@kubus_gt: EECB for the police? Although when the government is involved, a call to a news station would be just as effective. Plus you might get interviewed.
I just learned a new word. I fenna work it into a conversation today.
No, I'm not making fun of her. I had just never heard it before.
@gStein: In my opinion, the city of chicago tacks on so many fees/tickets/meters that they single handedly force a ton of people out of the relatively affordable task of driving a car. The only system in chicago that is run proper is the dept. of revenue. it's sad and one of the few things hurting this blooming city.
Man, I love living in my dinky-ass town. I've never had any problems parking anywhere. The worst I've gotten is a ticket. Chicago is the problem. Distance yourself from the problem.
In the article, it says that Jarrett's car was impounded because her name was frequently used by her sister whenever she was busted for drugs. This makes sense, but all they would really have to do is pull up a driver's license photo of Vivian Jarrett and see that she didn't look exactly like her sister, and that she probably had no prior record.
One of my friends just got a traffic ticket in the mail - from a state she's never been to! She called to figure out what was going on, and it turned out to be that there was a person in that state with her exact name and middle initial, and that person was a serial offender. The wonderful law enforcement officials mistakenly ticketed my friend, despite her living 2,000 miles away and having never even visited the state, let alone holding a license there.
Actually it's not only Chicago. Recently the city of Hartford CT was forced to 'fess up to improprieties, repay token amounts to affected folks, and stop taking kickbacks from towing companies: [ctwatchdog.com]
Just goes to show that government corruption occurs at all levels and in many ways. Including some that not even a Hollywood script writer could have thought up ... and if s/he had, it might have been laughed off as implausible. Only these things are not implausible ... they really do happen in the real world.
@Jabberkaty: The tow company certainly has to be paid no matter whose fault it is, and the storage lot might be private, too.
People are being deprived of property without due process. This is like the red light/speed cameras. The government is collecting private debts at the threat of jail, too.
insurance should cover your stolen car fees minus deductible. give em an inch and they take a mile. take no guff from those swine.
@G.O.B.: Come on!: And they are automatically encouraged to impound when they get to charge fees. Impound charges should only be levied after a conviction, a ticket is paid, or the person admits guilt. They should never be allowed when charges or tickets are dropped.
@madog: As someone who's luckily not been there but has known 3 people who HAVE, I can say with confidence that they don't charge you that much and tow you for the very first time they catch you with no front plate.
@ovalseven: I'll make fun of her. I'll also make fun of anyone who "axes" a question, says "uhmuhnuh" when they mean "I'm going to," "pologizes" when they are sorry, says "aight" when they mean "alright" and thinks "baby daddy" is a suitable replacement for "father." Bonus points are awarded for our cousins overseas who say "innit" when they mean "isn't it"
Stupid people speak stupidly. Which is why language evolves. Some day, "fenna" and "uhmuhnuh" are going to be in the dictionary and considered proper English. Then in about another 50 years, some idiot is going to use "fuh" when they mean "fenna" and my educated grandchildren are going to make fun of them for it.
@G.O.B.: Come on!: Chicago recently increased the fine for tinted windows. The guy I sit next to at work had tinted windows and had gotten tickets randomly over the past couple of years for $25. He thought it was worth it, because he wanted tinted windows.
He just got a ticket for the increased amount. $250!!! 10x more. I absolutely hate the Department of Revenue. Hands down it's by far my least favorite thing about this city.
@squinko: THE GUBMINT IS GONNA HAVE TO PRY MY GUNS AND MY MEDICARE FROM MY COLD DEAD HANDS.
/Ignoring the fact that Medicare is a government program.
@bagumpity: Basically, you hate ebonics. So do I, actually. Mr. Pi and I had a good time watching "Castle" last night because of the subplot involving poor use of grammar and the murder of the English language. It drives us both insane when we see complete destruction of the English language.
Also, grammar puns are awesome.
@madog: I feel your pain.. I got towed once because when I visited my cousin's appt. building, I apparently parked in a space reserve for tennants to wash their cars.. it was 11:30pm, and it was 15 degrees outside, and the little security guard wanted to feel important. (I especially loved that he saw me wandering the lot looking for it, and didn't have the balls to tell me he had it towed...!)
In fact, 45 minutes, and $200 later, the only good to come out of the whole thing was that my car was parked next to the one they had used in the movie "jackass" where they rented a car, and put it through a demolition derby...
@SagarikaLumos: You're right, the tow company needs to be paid, but the people who MADE the mistake should be paying, not the VICTIM of the mistake.
I think someone should follow the money on this. Someone is making good money on these "mistakes."