'[My] car is gone': Tenant pays in small change for fraudulent towing charge when their car is incorrectly towed from their snowy apartment complex parking lot

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Brad Dickson • Managing Editor
Feb 21, 2024 10:00 AM EST

There will be plenty of times in your life when things seem completely unfair. Plenty of these times will involve incorrectly awarded parking infringements…

Should this tenant have just moved their vehicle like everyone else so that the snow plow could do a clean sweep of the lot? Sure. But, by the time they had gotten out there and removed the remaining snow from around their vehicle that should have been the end of it. Just because a rule exists doesn't mean it needs to be enforced to the letter each time, there should always be exceptions when suitable. There was no reason for the tenant's car to be towed once the lot had been properly cleared. But, when it comes to parking infringements and dishonest towing yards, they're always going to be happy to turn their nose away from common sense in order to get a little extra coin. Well, a "little" extra coin is exactly what this towing yard got when this tenant, their victim, paid the entirety of their towing fine in small denominations. 

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    via Joshuer
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    Posted by u/hmmidkmybffjill Cash only, you say? M OC Tow truck story reminded me of my own tow truck MC a few years ago. Obligatory mobile post sorry bad formatting yada yada. I was living in an apartment with a small lot, and during the winter if there was a storm we were supposed to move our car to the street for the plow. Usually we would get an email and/or text with the time to be out by. Usually.
    via u/hmmidkmybffjill
  • 03
    So one night overnight we get about an inch and a half of snow. This is a place that gets a decent amount of snow, so no big deal. I wake up at a normal time, no text or anything, it's gonna be like 40 degrees and sunny so it's gonna melt anyway, I figure I don't need to bother moving the car so I sit down to play some video games before I go to work. Around 10am or so, I hear the plow outside and say ahhhh ok, get my boots and coat on and get ready to go. I get outside, plow is gone and people
    via u/hmmidkmybffjill
  • 04
    Go back inside for an hour or so, walk outside to go to work and car is gone. Hmm what's that about? I didn't get any call or notification or anything, nobody knocked on my door, I'm 99.9% sure it got towed but I'm fuming so I called the police non- emergency line to report it stolen. Police super helpful, I explain the situation and that it's probably towed but I'm confused as to why it was towed, they say it's a civil matter so they aren't going to charge anyone with theft but they are at leas
    via u/hmmidkmybffjill
  • 05
    Tow shop across town, $15 dollar cab fee, whoopee. Call the shop to confirm my car is there and see what the damage is, $180 cash only. This is like 2019 in the United States so cash only kinda weird but I was working at a winery making tips so I had a lot of cash saved for a rainy day luckily. A quirk of that is that being a small place, oftentimes the tips are in small bills, and we usually don't have enough big bills to exchange them, so on a day I make $100+ in tips I leave with a lot of one
    via u/hmmidkmybffjill
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    Honestly this was only half malicious and half wanting to take the opportunity to unload the absurd amount of cash I had laying around, but off I go. Get to the shop, ask if there's anyyyyyything they can do because I really don't think they had a real reason to tow me, nope nothing we can do just following orders the person behind the counter says with a very smug grin. Her grin turned to horror when I pulled out the change bag. I spend the next 15 minutes watching her meticulously count out pe
    via u/hmmidkmybffjill
  • 07
    I'm $10 short, I misheard her on the phone, it was $190. I pull a $20 out of my wallet and ask for the two fives back. Oh man she was Was this petty and did the tow truck desk lady do nothing wrong? Absolutely, but if you're gonna tow peoples cars and make them pay nearly $200 in cash, don't be surprised when they bring cash.
    via u/hmmidkmybffjill
  • 08
    Saelora i'm confused. what did the reason end up being as to why they towed you? because it's sounding like some random tow company stole your car and charged you $190 to get it back. 369 Reply Share Equivalent-Salary357 Most likely snow plow driver or apartment manager called to get it towed because OP missed the notification and didn't move the car out of the lot. 152 Reply Share
    via u/hmmidkmybffjill
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    Equivalent-Salary357 I get the idea of having tenants move their cars out of the lot to make it easier for the snow plow driver to clear the lot, but what do they do when there's enough snow that cars aren't able to leave the lot until it's cleared? 72 Reply Share timotheusd313 I'm wondering how the street gets plowed when all the cars get moved out of the lot? 44 Reply Share
    via u/hmmidkmybffjill
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    Francesca_N_Furter I think being smug about it made her deserve it. 209 Reply Share Halospite She missed out on a golden opportunity. Customer service vets know that the best way to respond to this sort of situation is to count out the change slowly, lose count, and start over, until the jokester gets impatient and whips out the big notes. 10 Reply Share
    via u/hmmidkmybffjill
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    BAM SSNs4evr I was a navy recruiter in New Haven CT, in 1995. We got away with pretty much parking anywhere we wanted because some tow truck driver towed a federal law enforcement vehicle full of weapons, just as they were getting ready for a drug raid, on a grouping of abandoned houses. Could you imagine? OK guys. Let's gear up and get these guys. Wait....where's the car? All the guns were in the trunk?
    via u/hmmidkmybffjill
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    So about 2 weeks into my tour in New Haven, I had some run-in with some city official who ran the plate on my government car. Apparently, there were hundreds of unpaid parking tickets affiliated with my plate/car. The guy was acting like he was going to hold me responsible, and things got a bit heated for a few minutes, when he got mad, and I became belligerent. Finally, I told him that I'd just been issued the car a few days earlier, and offered him the phone number to GSA (Government Services
    via u/hmmidkmybffjill
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    Apparently it was under a city contract, that the weapons vehicle was towed, which resulted in a lot of anger, stress, and finger-pointing between city, state, and federal officials. The end result was a moratorium on towing anything with government plates. 87 Reply Share hmmidkmybffjill OP That is the most New Haven thing I've ever heard 27 Reply Share
    via u/hmmidkmybffjill
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    00 P4ddyC4ke There's a tow company where I live that patrols the parking lots just off the university campus. We were working on campus and went to get some lunch. Apparently, you're not supposed to cross the street once you park because you're not shopping in the strip mall... Anyway, our work van got towed. I don't remember the amount but they required cash and would not accept change or stacks of ones. My coworker got the payment in $2 bills... Best we could do
    via u/hmmidkmybffjill
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    and still make it inconvenient for them. For those not in the US, $2 bills aren't in general circulation, but you can get them from a bank. All stores that have a cash drawer have a slot for 1,5,10,20,50/100 generally. 5 slots usually the last slot will be $50's generally and any 100 bills will get put under the tray, so imagine then giving them about 100 $2 bills... 60 Reply Share
    via u/hmmidkmybffjill
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    yu? Divinate_ME why did you get towed and had to pay for it? Sorry, my reading comprehension is 10 Reply Share hmmidkmybffjill OP Management company called in the tow, I was technically at fault since it did snow and I didnt move my car, sure I didn't obstruct the plow really at all and I cleaned the spot that he wasn't able to get to because I was in so they didn't neeeeeed to tow me they just wanted to be petty. Tow company was just following orders, guy gets called to tow this car from this l
    via u/hmmidkmybffjill

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parking space parking lot tow truck malicious compliance parking ticket revenge parking drama towing parking stories petty revenge parking
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