(WSVN) - She walked into a drugstore. When she came out, her car had been towed and she had to pay to get it back. Is it legal to tow a customer’s car? It’s why one South Florida woman picked up the phone and called Help Me Howard with Patrick Fraser.
Look around, traffic backed up, people lined up.
Clearly, South Floridians have one thing in common; they are busy.
Katherine Grigelis: “And I don’t have a lot of time to do like, shopping and a lot of things like that personally.”
Proof of that, the other day, Katherine didn’t have time to run an errand until after midnight.
Katherine Grigelis: “I saw the CVS and I decided, I needed a couple of things I would run in.”
Katherine pulled in next to this sign that read “If you park and leave the shopping center, you are subject to tow.”
Katherine Grigelis: “And it didn’t faze me at all because I didn’t leave the lot and I didn’t do anything wrong.”
When she was in the CVS, she says a tow truck driver actually walked in to talk to the clerk.
Katherine Grigelis: “They came in and asked if they should tow the cars, and she had told them not to because there were customers in the store.”
A few minutes later, Katherine paid for her items and walked out.
Katherine Grigelis: “And when I went outside, my vehicle was gone. It was very unpleasant, you know, to walk outside of a store is an unsettling feeling when your vehicle is not there. I immediately thought maybe it had been stolen.”
Nope, it had been towed from the CVS parking lot while Katherine was inside shopping at CVS.
Katherine Grigelis: “So I called the towing company who wasn’t very pleasant and then, they told me to call the people who signed for the tow. So I called lot management systems. They didn’t answer.”
Katherine’s husband took her to All County Towing where she had to pay $169 to get her car.
Katherine Grigelis: “They weren’t very friendly, they charge you extra to use your credit card. I don’t usually carry cash like that.”
Katherine has her receipt to prove she was in CVS while her car was being towed.
So the next day, she contacted the store lot management who asked for the towing and she called the tow company to try to get her money back.
Katherine Grigelis: “I called a lot of people to try to help me and nobody was able to help.”
Living in South Florida, you know if you park illegally you can be towed. But Katherine is convinced she parked legally and still got towed.
Katherine Grigelis: “You know, not everyone can afford $169 to get their car out and I didn’t like it.”
Well Howard, was the tow illegal and if so, who has to reimburse Katherine?
Howard Finkelstein, 7News legal expert: “Yes, the tow was illegal. As for the reimbursement, state law regulates tows from private property and says, whoever authorized the illegal tow has to reimburse Katherine, and in some cases, if the car is damaged, they have to pay for that and legal fees if you have to sue them in court.”
We started by contacting CVS.
They wrote, “We did not request or authorize the towing and suggest, she contact the landlord who manages the property.”
The property manager said Katherine would get her money back. That mistakes happen.
It took a couple of weeks, but the company who called to have her towed, Lot Monitoring Service, sent the $169 dollars back to Katherine.
And that’s all she had been asking for.
Katherine Grigelis: “I’m feeling great, Thank you Help Me Howard. I appreciate your help, and I just don’t think, it should happen to anyone else.”
Glad we could get that taken care of for you, Katherine.
Now, the key is resolving many Help Me Howard’s, finding the right person, and staying on top of it. It took us two weeks to get Katherine’s money back. Sometimes it happens overnight, sometimes longer, but we never give up.
Hooked up to a problem you want to haul away? Tow us in because we have the prescription to help you out.
With this Help Me Howard, I’m Patrick Fraser, 7News.
CONTACT HELP ME HOWARD:
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Reporter: Patrick Fraser at pfraser@wsvn.com
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