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City sued for letting contractor take, keep residents' cars

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  • City sued for letting contractor take, keep residents' cars



    The city of Wilmington, Delaware, is facing a lawsuit from the Institute for Justice for allowing a private contractor that provides towing services for the city take several residents' cars and keep them.

    The lawsuit charges that the program confiscates from residents property that is worth more that the debts incurred, often for parking tickets, but fails to return the different to the car owners.

    "In other words, the city can't keep a $4,000 car over a $400 debt," the IJ explained,.

    It continued, "Next, the lawsuit challenges the lack of procedural protections provided by the city’s program. The city violates the Fourth Amendment by seizing cars without a warrant and the city violates due process by failing to provide any pre- or post-seizure hearing."

    Then finally, the lawsuit challenges the loss of a car as an excessive fine, as keeping someone’s car over an alleged parking violation is "grossly disproportionate."

    The background is that the city contracts out its municipal impound system to a private company. It pays nothing for the service, but lets the companies "wrongfully take and keep people’s cars."

    Two victims of Wilmington’s tow-and-impound racket, Ameera Shaheed and Earl Dickerson, represented by the Institute for Justice, now have sued.

    "The Constitution requires that any penalty imposed by the government be proportional to the crime. The loss of one’s car for ticket debt is unconstitutional," said IJ Attorney Will Aronin. "People depend on their cars to work, to visit family, and for all parts of their lives. Nobody should lose their car just because they can’t afford to pay a parking ticket."

    Shaheed’s ordeal in came when the city ticketed her "legally parked" car six times in nine days. While her appeal of the wrongfully issued tickets was pending, "the city towed her car and demanded payment in full," said the IJ.

    The disabled grandmother of three could not afford to pay $320 in tickets within 30 days, so First State Towing scrapped her car, worth over $4,000.

    Wilmington still is demanding $580 from her.

    And when Earl Dickerson, a retired Wilmington grandfather, could not afford to drive much during the pandemic and left his car legally parked on his street, it was ticketed, then towed.

    He paid the $60 ticket he was issued in full but the towing company demanded another $910 in "storage fees," which he couldn't pay.

    The company scrapped his car.

    "Wilmington is taking cars without any kind of procedural protections, holding them for ransom, and then refusing even to credit the value of the car toward the supposed ticket debt,” said IJ Senior Attorney Rob Johnson. “No private debt collector could ever get away with that. The city doesn’t get extra leeway to take private property just because it’s the government. To the contrary, we should be holding the government to a higher standard."

  • #2
    I'm looking back on a time when I was ridiculed in a post to this board when I said I would vote to acquit and hang a jury if I was on it and the person on trial killed a wrecker driver.
    Magnus, I am your father. You need to ask your mother about a man named Calvin Klein.

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    • #3
      I'm sure not all them are, but most of the ones I have known were low-lifes that didn't give a shit about anybody else..

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      • #4
        Pretty much the same going on here in Texas. There is NO law setting the fees a towing company can charge when they "snatch" your car for illegal parking on private property. NO laws on what hey charge for "storage" either. You don't pay, they file a lien and auction your car to settle the lien.
        Basically the same thing happens when the po po arrest ya, they impound the car, the storage fees start. You no pay, they sell yo car...
        Now the article is about fail to pay parking tickets, thats kinda BS. If you're parked illegally, fine, tow the car. If you owe back tickets, NOPE, deal with that in court, dont snatch the car

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        • #5
          Originally posted by line-em-up View Post
          I'm sure not all them are, but most of the ones I have known were low-lifes that didn't give a shit about anybody else..
          The ones that do consent tows are OK. The ones that prowl apartments in the middle of the night looking to tow something are roaches who need to be killed. I think the samething about repo men.
          Magnus, I am your father. You need to ask your mother about a man named Calvin Klein.

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          • #6
            Not that long ago I called a wrecker to pull a guy from the ditch. It was around midnight so when we got there I figured someone was drunk, and I let my rookie handle the call. Nope, guy was working for fresh/grub hub or something, had been working all day, had his son in the van and agreed to take one last order to my city since he was south anyways. Google told him to turn left, he turned left. Well we have some poorly lit intersections and some people don't get the whole divided highway thing. Said he thought WTF are those headlights coming my way and just ditched it to get off the highway. I told him probably 70 bucks to pull him out. He had 80 bucks in tips for the day. MFer wrecker driver pulled up and told him 135.00 and would not negotiate. The same amount they charge to pull a car and take it to the pound, not like I haven't heard the conversation before. I was like really? Yes sir I have no control over the fee. So, the guy called his wife to have her transfer some money over and I heard them debating bills etc. I had a 100 in my wallet and gave it to the wrecker driver and told him to give that guy the change. I was actually fairly shitty to the wrecker driver. If I would have had my truck at the PD or a tow strap I would have pulled his ass out. Really, 135.00 to pull a guy 9 feet. 30 minutes worth of work including his drive, so 270 bucks an hour. Just made me mad he had no empathy for the guy. That reminds me I need to throw a tow strap in my car. Never again.

            I know a guy that owns a wrecker service so I kind of know the process but it has been awhile. You get your car impounded and go to jail, 30 days later after no one picks up the car they send a certified letter to the registered owner (ten day maybe) when no one shows, bam, goes to auction IIRC. Now, before you gentlemen start, the PD/ city gets zero money from the proceeds. Now Dallas on the other hand I have no idea or anywhere that operates their own impound yard.
            Last edited by kingjason; 09-27-2021, 02:31 AM.
            Whos your Daddy?

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            • #7
              Originally posted by kingjason View Post
              You get your car impounded and go to jail, 30 days later after no one picks up the car they send a certified letter to the registered owner (ten day maybe) when no one shows, bam, goes to auction
              They can auction it after 30 days. They send the letter within 24 hours of it hitting the tow yard. They dont want stuff sitting that long and want it gone asap if it gets abandoned.

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              • #8
                Originally posted by dcs13 View Post
                They can auction it after 30 days. They send the letter within 24 hours of it hitting the tow yard. They dont want stuff sitting that long and want it gone asap if it gets abandoned.
                It has been a while since I have had direct dealings with them.
                Whos your Daddy?

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                • #9
                  I work in a small town and we have 2 wrecker services. Since I do auto repair, I see both services and a variety of others. I feel like our 2 local setups are pretty honest and fair all in all from my perspective. I can attest that most all of the time they'd like the owners to pick the vehicles up and pay the tow charges and not have to deal with the legal side of impound.

                  That said, I can see where it'd be a racket and easy enough for a company's in larger areas to fuck people over. Just because you can doesn't mean you should.

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                  • #10
                    Originally posted by shumpertdavid View Post
                    I can see where it'd be a racket and easy enough for a company's in larger areas to fuck people over.

                    It was the tow truck drivers of Houston that prompted historians/linguists to revise and add an additional, tenth, level to Dante's Inferno.

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