car was towed, officer didn't file paperwork....

[amyxshi]

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? NY

hi all. i'm hoping you can help.

my boyfriend's younger brother (alex) was driving on a highway in NYC when his car died. he had no paper or anything to leave a note, but left the car on the shoulder to go call a towing company. when he came back (it took him an hour), the car was gone. he called 311 and checked the NYC DMV website for the next three days (you can type in your plate # or call 311 with it and they can run the plates and locate the tow pound where your car is, often within hours of your car being towed), but the car never showed up as having been towed so he had to assume it was stolen...

the law here is if you are reporting a stolen vehicle, you have to go to the scene of the crime and call 911 and wait for an officer to arrive to file a formal report. he tried to do this twice, but the officer never responded and after waiting a couple hours each time (ON THE SIDE OF THE HIGHWAY!) he had to give up.

finally, yesterday, he had a full day off and went back there with a book, resolved to wait until the cop actually showed up. come to find out, the car had actually been towed, and NOT stolen, but the officer who had called in the tow, had never filed the proper paperwork... hence why the car didn't show up in any databases as being towed.

so NOW, it's been just over a week. the initial tow fee was $150, but has now ballooned to over $600 because the car was sitting in the lot for a week. he has to pay it to get the car out, but if it had been reported as towed as it should have, then he would only be paying the inital tow + ticket fee. does he have any recourse to get back the difference? can he take the NYPD/highway patrol to small claims court? does he need to file some kind of special claim?

i realize that it is not a huge sum of money but it is a huge amount to him.

thanks in advance for any advice.What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)?

[LSCAP]

The way it is in NYC you have to go to any police station (or, for that matter, any police officer,) and file the report.
They will forward it to the precinct concerned.

It’s too bad you didn’t know that. Though some lazy ( Or uninformed) officer may have told you otherwise.

And I’m sorry that I don’t know what you can do about the $600.00 fee.