Nasty surprise when I got home yesterday afternoon: My daughter's car was gone from where it had been parked when I left for work.
I called the San Diego Police Department, and surprisingly, got a dispatcher on the second ring. "Hello," I said, giving my name and address, "my daughter's car is missing from where it was parked this morning, and I'd like to report it stolen." I gave the license number, make and model of the vehicle. Very politely, she asked me to hold, and came back a minute later with this little piece of information: "Sir, that vehicle had been parked in the same location for more than 72 hours, so it was towed."
Um, excuse me, but it was in front of my house.
"Yes, sir, but it was parked on a public thoroughfare and cannot be left unattended for more than 72 hours."
Um, excuse me, but it was not unattended, it was parked in front of my house.
"Yes, sir, but it was on the street. For more than 72 hours."
I could see where this was going (around in more circles...this is why I am not a NASCAR fan), so I asked where it was, and was given a phone number, which I called.
Initially, I was polite.
After ascertaining that Star Towing did, in fact, have my daughter's car and that I could come pick it up any time, I asked how much it was going to cost me to retrieve it. The gentleman on the phone tapped some keys on his computer and came up with a number.
And this is where I lost my temper.
Because I was thinking, like, you know, fifty bucks. Enough to get pissed off about, but not really pissed off about.
He explains that the SDPD charges a $25 fee per day for storage, and slapped a $102 impound fee on top of that. The towing itself was $125, plus $4 per mile over five miles, and since Star Towing is located 11 miles from my home, that added $24 to the cost of the tow.
Two hundred and seventy-six dollars.
Payable in cash or credit, no checks, please.
It would have been cheaper to park it at the airport for a month.
Oh, and when the impound attendant turned over the car, he said, "Nice BMW. You really shouldn't park it on the street."
As he handed me my keys, a piece of paper under the windshield wiper caught my eye.
It was a parking ticket. Dated yesterday.
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6 comments:
Car-theiving Nazis. That's crazy.
that's insane! I once got two parking tickets in less than 12 hours in front of my house, because my sister was trying to be nice and brought the first one in the house to me, because I was so sick I couldn't move... of course when someone ran into my parked car causing $3000 worth of damage, they couldn't be bothered to worry about finding them. perhaps if they stopped worrying so much about mostly law-abiding people for silly parking things, and went after a criminal or two...
I can dream can't i?
How outrageous. I'd say only in California, but I know that's not true.
One April 15th, I got into the office at 4:30 am (I'm a CPA, so I'm not really as crazy as that sounds) and worked until 9:00pm. I went out to get my car...which was gone. I called the police, thinking it had been stolen. Turns out, I had parked a few inches over some guy's driveway and he had my car towed. It was truly only a couple inches over...even the policeman shook his head, but they towed it nonetheless.
I'm hoping Karma is real and that someday, that guy gets his due.
Hey, Kurt -
I see you got some information on the timber industry, there. I got this on my blog today, too. If it happens again, I'm thinking of changing the setting so people have to enter a five-letter code (visible on the screen) to leave a comment - but I just hate that spam (and not the good, tasty kind) is infiltrating our blogs!
eeww, that's quite sucky
a little comedic too, actually, sorry about that
How'd they know it was there for 72 hours and which neighbor did you piss off? lol
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