It is s a scene repeated on daily basis in Brownsville.
A motorist parks his or her car on a parking lot and goes about to do his business unaware that the owner or parent company has struck contract with local towers who often swoop on the cars within minutes after the drivers leave and hook them up and hauls them off.
While businesses are within their right to haul off cars of people who use their lots to do personal business next door or down the block, the tactics used by some tow truck operators borders on outright abuse.
Take the case of a local man (we're withholding his name at his request) who was experiencing mechanical troubles on his car and went to buy car parts at a store on Mexico Blvd. by the old Amigoland Mall.
When he bought the parts and went out to the parking lot, he looked through his car for the tools he needed to replace the part and not damage his car only to find that he hadn't carried them in that vehicle. He called for a ride and a friend came by to help him and take him to get them.
When they returned less than half an hour later, they found the car was about to get hooked up and loaded on the bed of the tow truck.
"He went in and showed the clerk at the auto parts store the receipts for the parts he had bought there just minutes ago but the clerk said he had not made the deal with the tow truck company," said the friend. "He was getting charged $280 so the operator would not take the car. If he had waited and looked for the impound lot, it would have been an extra storage fee tacked on to the charges."
Eventually the tow truck owner relented after the men called the various police agencies to see who could help them. After an administrator at the Cameron County Sheriff's Dept. was contacted he told the men to call the dispatcher at Rancho Towing on Fm 1732 who knew someone at the department. As a result of the intervention, the car owner only had to pay $180 instead so that the car wouldn't get taken away.
El Rancho apparently has contracts with businesses along the Old Bridge who find it easy to park in one of the businesses along Mexico Blvd. and go across into Matamoros to fill a drug subscription
or do some business that will not require much time. When they return, they often find an empty stop where their car was parked. After inquiring from local businesses, they usually find the tow truck company, pay the towing charge and daily storage fee to get their vehicles returned.
The same thing happens in downtown businesses such as the private lot next to Las Casuelitas, a popular caldo joint on 12th and Adams streets. There, the owners of the restaurant have posted signs warning patrons to not park their cars on the adjacent parking lot because it will be subject to towing.A customer whose car was about to get towed away by Raymond's Towing said that she was in the restaurant and heard someone come in the door to say they were towing away cars and hurried outside to find out it was her vehicle.
In her case, the tow truck had already hooked up her car and and was waiting until she emerges to tell her she was in violation of private property. There is a parking-metered city lot across Adams if the spaces along the street are full, but for the uninitiated, it will take a $50 fee for the driver to unhook his cable and allow you to leave with your vehicle.
Since it is a contract between two private parties, law enforcement cannot come to the aid of the drivers because they did not call them. There are some officers in the Brownsville Police Department that want to establish a city-owned towing service exclusive to the city so do away with both the towing rotation schedule and private towers gouging people for the service.
In the case of the caldo woman, she not only paid the $8 for her caldo, she also paid a $50 charge for parking.
12 comments:
The el rancho and pena's towibg and lupe's wrecker park their trucks behind the old bridge gas station and swoop in within 5 minutes of getting called. they also stage behind the itec/ old amigoland mall. $280 is ridiculous use to be $85 to unhitch. No mamen!!!
Wow, it just happened to my daughter behind El Jardin Hotel. The vultures are circling . Went to oyster bar for a 45 min lunch. $270 later she got her car. No parking sign was covered up by a big truck. And people wonder why downtown is dying . Must have someone on look out from Brownsville numerous high rises.
That "auto parts store" or Advanced Auto Parts has definitely a deal with the tow truck companies. A while back I parked there for literally 10 minutes and went to Matamoros running to drop something off and came back and by the time I was coming back there was a tow truck getting into the parking lot, I got in the car quickly and moved my car and then got out and looked at the tow truck and gave him the finger.
The mayor and the city commission approved the increase to $280 as a request by the tow companies. Nobody complained... Everybody went out and re-elected these bozos again. Quit complaining...
Nobody gas to complain with Lupe peña around. He steals your vehicle and gives u some b.s. story for 280 a pop. He should be charged with theft. No official record on wrong doing. Just a greedy excop pulling strings and preying on downtown customers.
It is called parking enforcement, actually it is an impune assault and robbery, most apartment complexes managers are making extra money by calling tow trucks to enforce the private parking law, it is badly hurting low income population as most of those complexes are in the Housing program, just recently I witnessed a poor single mother of 4 little kids, crying because they towed her Van, her old mother lives in the complex and she just stopped by to leave her some lunch, 15 minutes later her van was gone, reported by the fat greedy manger, just because she didn't know the car, she lost her vehicle $290 is unaffordable for her, the fat lady manger is counting her commission.
that's why I don't go to the downtown anymore, these folks are nothing more that bunch of thieves, downbeats and snakes in the grass.
Tipotex Chevrolet and its General Manager wanted my client of limited means and poor health to pay a ransom of about $630 to get his one and only car back from the jaws of a Brownsville business. He had left his vehicle with a flat to go get another tire.
On the trip that my client and I took to pay the ransom, Mike "Doesn't Have a Last Name," a supervisor in parts and "service," refused to give us any paperwork other than the receipt. The General Manager, who either has an arrogant disregard for his involuntary customers, or is a big, fat weenie, or both, refused to come down from his hiding place to discuss the issue with me.
So, we sued both of them with other defendants to follow. During the lawsuit, I will get every single piece of paper and all information related to my client's fraud, deceptive trade consumer protection act, and breach of contract claims. I will also get copies of every Tipotex towing receipt for the preceding four years to uncover, upon information and belief, hundreds of other victims. I think my little baby case will grow into a huge monster with many, many victims suing several towing companies.
Seeing the El Rrun Rrun post only heightens my confidence that I am on the right track to punish some greedy companies taking advantage of people of limited means to pay and to fight back.
The widespread abuse in Brownsville that so many people seem destined to live with needs to come to a stop, or at least needs to be contained. Let's start with Brownsville towing companies.
phil@bellamylawoffice.com; 956-546-9345
One does not have to go downtown to be victimized by tow truck company highway robbery.
That's why my whole family stays away from downtown. We go to Harlingen / McAllen instead.
Yea baby!!! Stick it to them they are monsters you should consider taking on those wretched insurance companies auto insurance is outrageous down here too.
I wanted to trade my fairly new car for a newer one at tipotex and some honky at that dealership offer me $500. I told this honky to shove it up his pearly white ass. I went to a hispanic dealership and purchased a new car they gave me $3000. for my car, moral don't buy from honkys specially if they're white with a pearly white ass.
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