My friend from out of town and I parked in a Kragen's Autoparts store in Chula Vista at 2245. We went next door to pick up a friend. When we came back at 2205, we found that our SUV was missing. An empty tow truck was searching the parking lot for another victim. We stopped him and asked if he towed our car. He said it just left two minutes ago. That was untrue, because we were outside the establishment we went to, which is next door, for over ten minutes. We did not see any tow trucks leave during the ten minutes we were outside. We called the police and said our car was just stolen. Chula Vista Police dispatch told us it was towed by Paxton Towing at 2207. Our phone call to the police was at 2208. Not sure what time the police or towing company uses. Our phone is set to the correct time by satalite.
We ended up going to the towing company. Was told it would cost us almost $400 to get it out. They wanted to charge us a $35 citation issued by a 3rd part, which they have no right to charge. The third party (Selective Vehicle Management - or something like taht) has to send the citation in the mail or take the vehicle's owner to court. This was on the news... 10news and Turko Files. I also looked it up in the Vehicle Code book.
My friend owns a security company and works closely with towing companies. We called a business partner, which has owned & operated a towing company in a major city up north. We were told all the law lingo & that Paxton Towing and this Selective Vehcile Management (whatever the companies called) is in violation for the tow & an illegal tow, which is considered that the towing company stole my friend's car.
There are 2 signs posted, one near the front enterance is partially covered by bushes. Both signs say "privite property" and "no parking between 11pm-6am" We parked at 2245. I know this, because I made a call on my cell phone as soon as we parked. We called the police the second we seen the empty tow truck and our car missing. The citation says our car was towed at 11pm. Isn't that luck! The sign says do not part after 11pm.
The guy we talked to that owns his own towing company, said that a tow company can not look for their own illegal tows nor can they tow a vehicle from public property unless the car has been sitting for over an hour or the owners/management for that property calls the tow in. The store was closed, so they couldn't call it in.
After talking to a few friends, I found out that cars get towed from their all the time. Paxton Towing has a spotter that sits in the back parking lot. The tow trucks were proberly around the corner, because they towed within 10 minutes of us being parked. The tow company is 3.5 miles away.
We will be talking to a lawyer and taking them to small claims as soon as we do the rest of our research about Paxton Towing & there spotter. I've read that they've been doing this since 2007. Check 10news pages. The same person owned both companies back then. The spotter company was called something else. Guess they learned their lesson, because this new company has a different owner's name.
We will also be filing a complaint with the BBB and turning our research, citation, tow slips, and anything else we can over to Turko by next week.
Oh, one last thing... The credit card slip that this unethical tow company gave us, had a time stamp of 01:48 in the morning. It was 12:15 by the time we paid and got our vehicle. They had our vehicle in their lot for 15 minutes before we got there. I am writting up a very informative timeline of events to be used in court.
Paxton Towing dispatch, which was working tonight (3/27/10) was unhelpful. He told us he could waive the $46 holding fee. As soon as we brought up that they were in violation of a vehcile code and that they could not charge us for a third party citation, then they made us pay the holding fee. What type of customer service is that?
I wonder how much of a kickback does this spotter get? $30-50 per car? Maybe more? They towed three cars at the same time, maybe one was the spotter? I only found one other guy that had his car taken. The third car's owner could not be found.
Paxton towing has an extremely unethical business pratice!!
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