Hooker’s Towing

On February 23^rd my son’s 2013 Hyundai Sonata was towed from an apartment complex for impeding a trash dumpster. According to my son, after finding out where his car had been towed, he called the tow company to find out how much the tow was going to cost. He was told 310 dollars and a 60 dollar a day lot fee. He was told that it was a new car and he could afford it.
He got the money together and he, my wife, and one of his friend’s went to go get his car between 2:30 and 3:00 pm. When contacting the lot, they were told it was going to be about an hour before anyone would be back to release his car. My wife received permission from the adjacent business to park her vehicle there while they waited.
When the tow company representative showed up then went into the building to do the paperwork. My son made a sarcastic comment about the condition of the lot and the building (which is small and run down) along with how they must be doing really well charging 310 dollars for a tow and the car sitting in the lot for less than 8 hours. The representative said that they charged what the state mandated they could charge. My son said that wasn’t true, there isn’t a state mandate about how much tow companies can charge. The employee said that he didn’t have to turn the vehicle over, that he could reserve the right to refuse service to anyone. My son said that he was there, with money, to pick up his car, and the lot didn’t reserve the right to keep the car. During the disagreement my wife was telling my son to get in the car and quit talking. The tow lot representative grabbed a can of what looked like mace and told my son to leave, that he was banned from the lot. My wife and son left the building while the employee came out. My son called the employee a couple of names, but he did get in a car and left the property. At this point, the employee hopped in his tow truck and told my wife he was going to tow her car as well, which, as I stated before, was sitting in an adjacent businesses’ lot which she had gotten permission to park in.
My wife asked what she could do to get the car as she was on the paperwork as well. The representative said that she would have to call the finance company. My wife enquired why she would need to contact the finance company, when first of all the car hadn’t been financed yet, the paperwork was still at the dealership, and second, the car wasn’t in danger of being repossessed. The employee told her in that case, she would have to contact the owner of the dealership. My wife, who works at that dealership as a manager, said ok, she would get him on the phone and have him come right over. The employee again told her she would need to contact the finance company and then told her she needed to get off the property because she was banned. He told her that he was going to keep the car until the finance company repossessed it, which of course, there wasn’t any danger of that happening.
My wife got in her car and called the general manager of the dealership where the car had been purchased a few days before. He called around to some other tow companies and informed her it was illegal for this tow lot to keep the car when they were trying to pay the charges. He told her she should call the police so she headed to the police station.
Around 3:50, I called my wife to find out how it was going in retrieving the car and she was in tears. She explained to me what was going on. She felt that the owner was hostile and threatening from the time she called to find out the exact location of the lot, right on through to when she left. She had felt buillied by him. I told her I would give her a call back and I called the police to find out what could be done. I was informed that I should contact the tow company to try and get the situation resolved and if not to give them a call back and they would send an officer to the location.
I called the tow company, as no one was at the lot, and told them that I needed to pick up my son’s 2013 Sonata. They said that he was banned from the lot and couldn’t pick up the car. I said that I had talked to the police and they had said what he was doing was illegal. He said that he had a video tape of the whole thing. I said that that was fine and because there wasn’t a physical altercation, that he couldn’t hold onto the car. He informed me that he wasn’t going to release the car, that he had the right to refuse service to anyone. I said that he couldn’t keep the vehicle and charge 60 dollars a day. He disagreed. I asked him if I needed to lawyer up and he said yes, I needed to contact a lawyer. I informed him that I was going to have the police come out and was going to have them talk to him and if necessary file a report, he said that was fine. I thanked him and hung up.
We ended up having to call the police to make the owner come out and release our car to use even though we tried a couple of times to pay them.