Having your car towed is frustrating and expensive. But what if your car was hooked up and hauled away, and it wasn't your fault?
San Diego police are looking into the illegal practices of S&S Towing. Investigators say complaints about the company have been rolling in for years.
According to the San Diego Police Department, the company has been primarily targeting immigrant communities. The department says there are dozens of victims, but there could be hundreds across the city and perhaps the county.
“Right now, our focus, because this is very wide-ranging, is that we’re trying to find victims,” Travis Easter with the SDPD said.
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The agency says this investigation has been going on for three years.
On Aug. 5, the department attempted to issue a search warrant to S&S Towing on the 4100 block of El Cajon Boulevard. Upon arrival, they say a tow truck driver ran into a parking lot of an auto dealership and shot himself. Police say he died from his injuries.
Gerardo Angel Godinez, who lives next door, was home when it happened.
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”I saw him running, and then he ran in there, and then the police officers chased him in there," Godinez said. "Then minutes later, you could hear so many sirens and police arriving."
Police didn’t provide any additional information on the man’s identity and did not say if a person was arrested in the case.
“Before I say we make an arrest, we find out how many more are affected, and we’ll continue with the investigation,” Easter said.
The police say drivers could be a victims of S&S Towing illegal acts if the following occurred:
- Your vehicle was towed from a legally parked area by S&S Towing
- The tow truck driver refused to release your vehicle on-site, meaning it hadn’t yet been removed from private property and was NOT in transit
- The tow truck driver asked for payment of more than half of the regular towing charge after it was already hooked up to the tow truck or other towing device and you returned and requested it be released
- The tow truck driver or company refused to accept a credit card as a form of payment and would only accept cash
- The owner of the vehicle is not provided a photocopy of the written authorization
- The owner is not provided a notice with information regarding reporting of wrongful towing
San Diego City Attorney Mara Elliott says predatory towing practices might be more common than you think.
“It's definitely an issue,” Elliott said. “We have one full-time investigator who looks into towing practices in the industry because we get so many calls on this.”
The city attorney says her office started to see an abnormal number of complaints with S&S Towing, so they met with victims and determined there was something going on. Her office became involved in the investigation through an unfair competition regulation.
“So we look at it globally, like are they skirting the system? Are they shortchanging customers? And we'll go after them as an industry,” Elliott said. “In this particular case, there were indications that there were misdemeanors and other potential crimes.”
Elliott says her office will be issuing an advisory to warn drivers in the City of San Diego in part because the regulations around towing can be complicated.
“We can't expect everybody to remember what the rules are,” Elliott said. “So we want to make it real easy, so they can figure out: were they treated fairly? Was there a legal violation? Do they have remedies that they're not aware of?”
Elliott explained some of the parameters drivers should look out for when they are parking their vehicles. First off, there needs to be a 17x22-inch sign posted saying that drivers can be towed if they’re not parked in a certain area.
Tow truck drivers have their own separate rules to follow.
“They must wait for an hour before they can tow that car, whichever car has violated. They need to document what they're observing so that they can prove that whoever parked illegally has actually parked illegally,” Elliott said. “So they need to document that with photos, whatever they are observing.”
Elliott added that tow truck companies must provide an invoice. It has to be very specific, and they have to allow all forms of payment and provide appropriate change when a driver pays. In these instances of predatory practices by a tow truck company, she says victims can represent themselves in small claims court to seek reimbursement of up to $12,500.
“If somebody wants to come and get their car, that storage area has to be open during regular business hours. And if somebody, for instance, wants to get the purse out of the car that they might have left when it was towed, they have a right to go to get their purse out of the car,” Elliott said.
Plus, if a driver returns to their car being towed by a tow truck and it’s still parked where they left it, that driver has the right to get their car back at that moment. If the car does end up getting towed, it can’t be farther than 10 miles away.
Elliott added that drivers should ask for proof that the tow truck company has the right to be on the property their towing from.
“They absolutely have a constitutional right to protect their own property. So if somebody's going to take it away, we encourage that they say to them, 'I want to know what your basis is for towing my car. Do you have permission to be here? How long do you think I have parked here?' And to ask them for all that proof, they're going to want to know for sure that it is their vehicle that was observed being parked in the wrong area and for a certain period of time," Elliott said. "That's why I think it's going to be important for us to issue a refresh towing bill of rights, so to speak, so that people know what to look for, because it really is a very complicated area of law.”
Police ask if you believe S&S Towing unlawfully towed your vehicle to contact SDPD’s Traffic Special Investigations Unit at TowingFraudReport@pd.sandiego.gov.
