Car towed from shopping parking lot

Wingerr

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Just heard from my friend that her car was missing when she walked back to it after shopping- thought it was stolen, but turns out the lot has a sign posted that says words to the effect that they tow cars if it is not taken with you when you leave the property for any time. So they did-

This is a strip mall shopping area, and a bunch of shops are all in walking distance, and one of the areas she went to was across the street, in addition to the stores she went to directly connected to the lot.
They want $150 bounty before releasing the car. Haven't picked it back up yet, as she has no way to get to the yard without a car, so who knows what damage they've wrought on it to boot.

So, my question is, is this a foolproof operation they've got going here? Apparently, they're saying what you need to do if you want to go to a shop across the street, you have to drive your car there and park it again. Being Long Island, people drive everywhere, but this is pretty ridiculous-
Is there any legal recourse to disputing this, or are they shooting fish in a barrel?
 

Wingerr

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Here's the verbiage from the sign they posted, probably as unobtrusively as they could manage:

Private Property
Shopping Mall
Customer Parking ONly
You may not leave this property without your vehicle for any reason or for any length of time. Unauthorized parked and abandoned vehicles will be towed away at owners expense.
Auto Recycling
Cars released M-F 10-7, Sat 10-2, Sun Closed, no cars released.

Reminds me of the guy in the movie Waiting...

I guess as long as they post a sign up, they can dictate whatever terms they want, since it's supposed to be private property.
 

Wingerr

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She did, and they were all shocked to hear about it themselves- can't blame them, because they're individual stores in a strip mall, and they didn't have anything to do with the setup. They said they do that themselves, parking the car and walking around to all the different stores in the area.

I suppose the term is consent to the terms is implicit for anyone parking there.
 

greenlight

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Exactly! If you purchased items at that mall, you should be OK. Was there a store bag visible in the car? Do they want your business again??

I tend to see a security employee at the local Trader Joe's. He/she has a digital device for recording tags. Yet I have never seen or heard of someone getting tagged for parking in the lot. Maybe the human presence scares away long term parkers? I always go in to the store, purchase products, then head to the Whole Foods across the street. That takes 10 mins. I'd be pissed if I returned to a ticket because someone had watched me leave the lot.

To be fair, I'm sure there are lots that do get abused.
 

Jumpmaster

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Friggin' MORE COWBELL!!!
Wingerr said:
Haven't picked it back up yet, as she has no way to get to the yard without a car,

Can't take a taxi/bus or get a friend to take her there? Really??

This happens all the time here (college town). What they do is they contract with a towing company to do this (the owners of the property...usually not the people that lease the stores) and the tow truck company just sits in the parking lot (hidden) and vultures it watching for any possible violation. Happens all the time here. A friend of mine parked at a sandwich shop, walked over to the ATM in the middle of the parking lot, then went in to eat. By the time he came out, his car was gone. The store wouldn't or couldn't do anything about it...even with the time-stamped receipt from when he got his food and the ATM receipt. The ATM wasn't across the street...same parking lot, about 100 feet from the store.

I doubt there's anything she can do except pay the ransom. If she had enough money, she could probably fight it with an attorney, but it'd cost more than just paying to get the car back...it's quite a racket.

JM-99
 

turbodog

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Guess I'd say it's her fault for parking in a lot that has these terms. Got to be prepared to get popped.

She needs to talk the the lease company that the individial shops lease from.
 

Wingerr

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Too late to pick it up today since their operation is only open to 7 pm.
Told her not to make waves at this point since they've still got the hostage; don't want to create any reason for them to do damage out of spite-

Wanted to find out how to deal with it afterwards- if it were me, I'd probably try to publicize it as a service to other hapless victims. It's certainly not clear that the stores on the other side of the road aren't part of the same shopping complex.
 

Lightmeup

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There's a regular racket in Chicago doing this same scam. Often the owner of the parking lot gets a kickback from the towing company so they usually aren't very sympathetic to complaints. She did violate the terms of the sign by leaving the strip mall to shop across the street. You can't really blame them for wanting to limit parking only to their own current customers, especially if there is a shortage of spaces. Just because you spend a buck at the one of their stores doesn't entitle you to park there and shop elsewhere. Check out the car really good for damage. Most of those tow truck drivers get paid on commission so they're not usually very careful.
 

Wingerr

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Just as an aside, the lot was pretty much empty, so it wasn't a situation of limited parking. The place handling the operation didn't have information on the owner; they said they were contracted out by the towing company. Sounded like they were the third cog in the machine, owner, towing company, and then them. Confusing. Essentially they said, just read the sign, you only deal with us, and we don't even know who the owner is-
 

Mike Painter

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Wingerr said:
She did, and they were all shocked to hear about it themselves- can't blame them, because they're individual stores in a strip mall, and they didn't have anything to do with the setup. They said they do that themselves, parking the car and walking around to all the different stores in the area.

I suppose the term is consent to the terms is implicit for anyone parking there.

I'd be a bit surprised to hear they had not heard of it. Signs like that (and guards at night) go up when the business owners complain their customers can't find a parking space. It happened to a friend who's shop was next to a resturant with limited and awkward parking. The resturant people would park in the mall's spots.
Nothing was done until the shop owners complained to the landlord.
 

LouRoy

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I think if this happened to me, I might just pay the towing company by check and then go straight to my bank and put a stop payment on the check. When they call to complain, I would simply tell them to have the owner of the shopping mall give me a call so we can discuss the situation. I would then ask him or her if this is really how s/he wants to treat good customers.
 

Joel

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I have a client out here in CA that is a retired lawyer. His son did the same thing and got his car towed. Even though the sign said it was parking for customers only, he took the towing company to court and won the case. He said there was a little known statute that said businesses that serve the public can't tow a vehicle unless it's been there for an hour or more. The Judge didn't even know about the law and they had to show him the statute so he could look it up. His son got the towing fee back and a nuisance fee as well. I'll have to contact him and find out if he was just pulling my leg (sometimes he just tells me BS) or this really does exist. It might also only apply to the city/town that he was in at the time.
 
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DonShock

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I saw one of these type of cases on one of the TV court shows a couple weeks back. The tow truck driver was describing how they operate. He had a spotter on an upper level of another building with binoculars spotting "violators". When the judge asked how long it took to have the car hooked up and gone, he said just a minute or two. I can understand businesses wanting to protect their parking space, but this behaviour is ridiculous.
 

Lightmeup

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LouRoy said:
I think if this happened to me, I might just pay the towing company by check and then go straight to my bank and put a stop payment on the check.
Nice try, but no dice. We don't take no stinking checks in Chicago.
 

BB

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In California, stopping payment on the check will get you a whole set of new problems... Might be lucky if you only end up paying several hundred dollars in bounced check fees. Basically, it is fraud.

Don't do it!

-Bill
 

Wingerr

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I'm pretty sure this outfit wouldn't even accept personal checks anyway- probably not credit cards either.
I'll call up and ask them if the payment terms required are for $20's in unmarked bills or some such stipulation.

It's pretty obvious the intent is not to protect the lot, because all they would have had to do would be to come up to her and say, "Miss, you can't park here if you walk off the lot, not even for a minute, or we'll impound your car." Instead, they simply waited until the coast was clear, and did their business.
Just telling her as she parked would have the desired results for the purported reason for the tow, but not for the real reason it was done- ($$$)
Maybe the intent for the law is noble, but in this case, I see no real justification beyond $cam. Have to note if maybe I didn't clarify; she was shopping in the stores IN the same strip mall, but instead of starting up the car and driving 20 feet to the other lot to go to one of the other stores, she walked- That's the criminal act she's been convicted of.:thinking:

They need to draw a line of demarcation with a sign, "Now Leaving Strip Mall".
 

BB

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Yea, the law is frequently not your friend... My in-laws have a small apartment building and a tenant abandoned their mother's car in the carport when they moved out. Could not get the police to ticket for a tow, or a tow company to remove it.

Had to drag it out myself to street parking, then complain to the cops about the car with expired tags and parked for more than 3 days.

-Bill
 

nemul

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Wingerr said:
This is a strip mall shopping area, and a bunch of shops are all in walking distance, and one of the areas she went to was across the street, in addition to the stores she went to directly connected to the lot.

how did they know she wasnt still shopping in "their" strip mall?
is there a guy with a tow truck watching everyone!?
 

LumenHound

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I've seen this before at strip plazas that have apartment buildings and larger office buildings with limited underground parking space within a 3 minute walk. If the apartment buildings are really old they may not have more than 1.5 underground parking spaces per apartment and with some of today's 3 car families you just know where some of those extra cars are going to end up parked most of the time.
In some cases the plaza parking lot can become half full of non-customer cars and these are cars that sit there taking up space from 9AM to 5PM. Sometimes the worst offenders aren't cars but large trucks that use the perimeter of the lot to park on while the driver gets some sleep at home nearby. Many apartment buildings just don't have the space in their outdoor visitor parking lot for big trucks.
 
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