(no subject)

[catsittingstill]

My car got towed today.

It was just minding its own business, parked at the side of the street, no yellow line, no "No Parking" sign, nothing. I came back from sign language class and found it was gone, and reported it stolen.

Apparently that street is too narrow for people to be allowed to park beside it, and people just have to kind of know that when they hatch. Tomorrow I'm going to find out exactly how wide the street has to be before you can park there, and take to carrying a measuring tape. I've got a nice 16 footer that should do, from working on the boat.

When I got to the towing place it turned out that the guy on the phone had neglected to mention that I needed to pay them in cash, so I had to go back to the bank and then back to the towing place again, so I could pay them 145$ in cash.

In one dollar bills.

I thought about paying in coins, but I don't have a wheelbarrow.

Comments

[weirdsister.livejournal.com]

Grrr...sounds really agravating! You'd think they'd post 'no parking' signs, but this IS a govt agency we are talking about. I hope the rest of your day is much nicer!

[catsittingstill.livejournal.com]

Well, with all the back and forthing it pretty much ate my day up to 3:00 pm.

But we did our best to make the evening more enjoyable.

[braider.livejournal.com]

Hmmm. That's one I'd check with city hall, and consider fighting - by means of an editorial to the newspaper, if nothing else.

[catsittingstill.livejournal.com]

Well, it was apparently a Jefferson City police officer that made the call. I'm not sure it's worth stirring up my feelings about it again and again and again trying to get some satisfaction. In terms of wear and tear on me it might be better to just forget about it. I haven't decided yet.

[tigertoy.livejournal.com]

That sounds really wrong. The street would have to be pretty amazingly narrow for it to be remotely reasonable to expect people to just know you can't park there. I could see it for an alley that was clearly less than two cars wide, so that a parked car would block it, but not for a real street. And if it's not genuinely blocking traffic, it's not right that they should tow you right away rather than just issuing a ticket. When an inappropriately parked vehicle isn't a serious inconvenience or safety hazard, reasonable jurisdictions only tow apparently abandoned vehicles and people with many unpaid tickets. And when they hit you for $145 it seems apparent that they're doing it to make money; not making it clear that you were going to be towed might even be on purpose to sucker in more victims. (Who was collecting the $145, a private towing contractor or the city? Does it cover the fine for parking illegally (I assume they wrote you a ticket), or just the "service charge" for towing your car away?)

In a better world, you could take it to court and get some satisfaction; in the one we're in, you'd probably be pissing up a rope (to use the technical legal term a law student friend from college taught me). If you happen to know a local lawyer who would give you an honest opinion for free or for the price of a beer, you might ask. A nasty letter to the editor is certainly in order, and possibly an in-person complaint to the relevant local elected officials.

[catsittingstill.livejournal.com]

(Who was collecting the $145, a private towing contractor or the city? Does it cover the fine for parking illegally (I assume they wrote you a ticket), or just the "service charge" for towing your car away?)

The private towing contractor collected the money. Of course, I don't know what kind of kick-back the police department, or the individual cop who cased the joint, might be getting.

[autographedcat.livejournal.com]

When I got to the towing place it turned out that the guy on the phone had neglected to mention that I needed to pay them in cash, so I had to go back to the bank and then back to the towing place again, so I could pay them 145$ in cash.

In one dollar bills.

I.....I love you. :)

[catsittingstill.livejournal.com]

:-) Thank you.

And that guy can thank his lucky stars I didn't have a wheelbarrow.

[mbumby.livejournal.com]

How annoying! Seems just wrong to not have any marking but tow anyhow.

Nearly laughed out loud (bad idea at work -- everyone else will want to know why) when I got to your In one dollar bills comment.

[catsittingstill.livejournal.com]

:-) Thanks. It's actually less of a bother than you might think to get that much in one dollar bills--the bank has a machine that counts them faster than you can shuffle a deck of cards.

The teller was actually quite sympathetic.

[msminlr.livejournal.com]

If you happen to know a local lawyer who would give you an honest opinion for free or for the price of a beer, you might ask.

You're in Kentucky, right?
Do you know Murray Porath?

[msminlr.livejournal.com]

Oops; I checked your user info; you're in Tennessee.
Well, maybe Murray knows a fannish lawyer there...

[catsittingstill.livejournal.com]

Yep, I'm in Tennessee. No, I don't think I know Murray.

[pondside.livejournal.com]

I love the legacy of un communicated knowledge.

Please do keep us uptodate, that is certainly worth following up on.

hugs

[catsittingstill.livejournal.com]

Um. Well, I'm not sure there will be much to keep you up to date on, but okay.

[patoadam]

How annoying. More than annoying.

[randwolf.livejournal.com]

Well, that sounds worthy of the University of Oregon or the city of Eugene. Sympathies.

[dan-ad-nauseam.livejournal.com]

At least in Oregon, the tower is now required to report to police and the registered owner, or their storage lien is lost.

Not that they always comply.

[robin-june.livejournal.com]

There's a lot of unauthorized private towing in the Columbus student slum next to Ohio State U. that I used to live in. Stories have made the paper of visiting parents who parked in a business lot, asked the guy there "is it okay if I park here?", get told by the towtruck driver, "Yes," and as soon as they walk away, the car is towed.

Of course, it made the paper because the parent sued, and made a big stink, and got their car and fee back.

It's a source of revenue for the towing companies, amd they treat it as a license to steal cars.

[thymidinekinase.livejournal.com]

145 $1 coins in a stout sack might work (and make a good sap if you're feeling noir-ish), but good luck finding a bank with that many $1 coins.

[catsittingstill.livejournal.com]

I was thinking of pennies, or better yet, mixed quarters, dimes, nickels and pennies, actually.