I'm a third year student at UNC-Pembroke and I've never seen the police of Robeson County work so hard to get cars towed! Parking spaces are terribly low on campus so off campus towing is enforced. I live in the Commons apartments and it was never enforced here until after the first two weeks of this school year.
When residents started complaining to the manager about no place to park their vehicle within their own residential parking area, Ms. Carla issued all residents parking stickers and had a sign put up that says unauthorized vehicles will be towed. Well what about our visitors? Each resident were suppose to be issued a visitor's pass, in which they may park their vehicle in the resident's area, but only 100 were issued due to the number of parking spaces availible. Residents still complained about their guests not having a place to park since there are no other lots around the complex, and for the fact that their vehicle would be towed if parked in the lot without a pass.
Therefore Ms. Carla, the maneger of The Commons at Pembroke, told the students that if they parked across the street in the grass lot that is just in front of a set of railroad tracks then their cars would be safe.
Saturday night of September 27 my friend came from out of town and parked in "the safe zone" and her car was gone at 4:56am Sunday September 28 along with about 20 other vehicles that were parked in the grass lot. I witnessed this happening as I just missed the towing of my friends car. As the rest of the cars were being towed by several different towing companies I was confused at why this was so due to no visible signs within 200 yards of this area stating that unauthorized vehicles will be towed. So I approached a cop car with the cop watching with pleasure as this goes on and he stated that the train company CSX called and demanded for these cars to be towed away because this was a no tresspassing zone. This was extremely illegal due to no warning and especially no signs of this zone and it's sacred rules.
Well I did some research and CSX was suppose to issue an authorization letter with a list of all of the cars to be towed and once the police department recieve's this, and only when, they should put out a warning and then allow the towing to begin. But this did not happen like this. I went to the police dept and asked cop Kelly Jenkins (a male) to see this list to find my friend's car and to see if this was a legal tow. He said he couldnt show me the list, I insisted on it being my right to see it due to the Freedom for Information Act and he then said he had no list and that it was currently being faxed, but I still wouldnt be able to see it because I would have to take this matter up with the towing company.
I tried to explain my story and how there were no signs of tresspassing but he insisted that there were signs along other parts of the tracks and he also insisted that we were iggnorant to the law, but it's okay because we aren't from here. Then he insisted that he didnt have to follow through with the authorization because "word of mouth" was all that was needed. Actually, an agreement contract was also what was needed in which the question of that was never answered. I also asked if we were under any code of violation and he simply said no. Then a lady cop shut the glass so that I could no longer communicate with them and they had the supervisor come out and give me the number to CSX. I guess if I wasn't in sweat pants and a hoodie, they may have taken me more seriously and let me see the authoriztation letter... If there really was one.
Anyways this is so unjust I just can't get over it. I'm a news reporter for Carolina News Today that airs every Friday at 10:30am and I plan to do a story on this so tune in on channel 6... And any other week as well!
Jacquie
Pembroke, NC
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