Scum

Statalyzer

Statalyzer

10,000+ Posts
Tow truck companies.

Apparently if you have car trouble, even if you are parked way off the shoulder, the moment you leave your car it's legal for them to tow you for the crime of having a breakdown.

Happened to my friend's brother last week - his spare was flat too so he had my friend drive him to get a new tire, and came back to find his car gone. And to make it worse the company was too stupid to realize where they had just taken the car. It was on Mopac a little bit South of I-35 and for some reason they took it down into far South Austin and then told him it was at their North location.

Then, after paying the extortion fee to get his car back, of course it's parked in the very back of the facility with a completely shredded tire. They told him he's not allowed to work on the car there in the lot. And even though he counted SIX drivers sitting around in their trucks doing nothing, they wouldn't let someone tow his car back out of the lot, so his only option was to drive it on the rim out onto the street and risk additional damage.

It would be karmic justice for anyone associated with a towing company to run out of gas on the highway, walk to the nearest service station to get gas, and come back to see a rival company driving off with their vehicle.
 
Houston has Safe Clear. Free tows off the freeway for any reason. Out of gas. Flat tire. Overheating. Whatever. They will take you wherever you want within one mile of the nearest freeway exit (or further to the nearest gas station if you're out of gas). The City picks up the tab, which in my mind is money well spent because it keeps the roads clear of obstructions that could easily lead to delays for many thousands of other drivers. Small cost. Large benefit.

Rule number one in Houston: stay with your car.

Bernard
 
There is a number on the back of your license that you can call that will summon assistance and I agree tow truck operators are not the most honest of sorts.
 
Scum for sure, but Shiner is right. There is a phone number on the back of your DL that you can call in Texas for a tow if in trouble.
 
I am with Bernard on this one. Yeah, i know it sucks and you were trying to get it taken care of as quickly as possible, but a car on the shoulder on Mo-Pac is a distraction and slows traffic down, especially during rush hour.

Although someone standing next to their car on the shoulder is even more of a distraction.

I don't know, **** happens. I am guessing leaving a note saying you will be back in 30 minutes would be ignored by a towing company, but it would be worth a shot.
 
His car was in the grass off the shoulder, at least 10 feet from the road. Not dangerous for other drivers at all.
 
Years ago we were at a bar in Houston and we parked in a lot where one side of the lot had signs saying no parking while the other side had no such signs. We parked where there were no signs and when we came back from the bar, the car was gone.

We found out where the car was towed: It wasn't hard because there were other ticked off people looking for their car. We started off nice at the tow lot, but the situation quickly escalated.

I was arguing with the attendant and 3 other guys started to approach me. Meanwhile, my friend walked to his car, fired up the engine and began driving off the lot. Just as the 4 guys approached me, I took off sprinting toward the car, jumped through the open passenger side window and we sped off: I guess the lot had some sort of deal with the tow company so it felt especially good to steal our own car. Nonetheless, I am sure we were lucky that the police weren't summoned.
 
I think the issue is that Tow truck driversexist to **** people, if they aren't aggressively sticking it too people they cannot make a living. This attracts a certain kind of person.
 
You guys will love this story, bear with me.

One of my wife's co-workers had her car stolen one night out of her apartment complex. She calls the police, files report, etc., etc. Her insurance sends her a check for the value of the car. She's making pretty good dough at this point, so she uses it as a down payment on a new Benz. Literally, the day she gets the Benz home, she gets a call from a towing company saying they have her car. Long story short, she had parked illegally or something, and they towed her but did not file the right police report. The towing company had to cover the insurance company's loss, she got her "stolen" car returned (after she paid ~$200 for the tow),...AND she got to keep the Mercedes!
 
Early this summer two Houston guys had their trucks and boat trailers towed away while parked on the side of the road on the Padre Island National Seashore. The towing company charged them each $2500 to get their trucks back. It was all over the local media for weeks afterwards.
 
Oddly enough this thread quickly became relevant to me as I had a flat tire last weekend after visiting my girlfriend.

The fastest and cheapest thing would have been to have her pick me up and take me to buy a new tire, and then change the tire myself. But that meant taking a risk that some jackass could legally make me pay to get my own property back. So I had to drive on a half-inflated spare all the way across town to the only place that was open on labor day and then wait 3 hours for them to get around to it b/c the lines were enormous.
 
Last month I drove my Denali through some high water at a fast rate of speed. Water shot through my intake. Blew a rod. I did not know this.

Tow truck driver showed up the next day and did everything he could to get my truck started before he towed me away. Jumped my truck off and even climbed under the denali and banged on the starter w/ a wrench.

This is a big city tow driver too.
 
A few years ago, a buddy of mine who is blind visited me in Houston and we went to a bar in the Westheimer area. We left his service dog in my van. When we came out, the van was gone. Luckily, we spotted a tow tuck driver cruising around looking for more victims. We asked him if he had towed my van and he had. I asked him if he realized that the van contained a dog that was worth $25k and he basically told me he didn't give a sh*t. I had to take a taxi to the piece of crap storage lot and pay $200 to get the van out. Fortunately, the dog was fine. SCUM
 
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