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towed unlawfully?

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lostnspiration

Junior Member
California

I went to a friends house over the weekend and parked on the street in a little cul-de-sac by his house. His house is part of a gated community. I'm assuming that the streets are owned by his hoa. He shares his drive way with some other rather rude people, and they had blocked the driveway, so I had to park on the street. Admittedly, the curb had some red paint on it, but at least half was gone, there was no reflective paint on the curb denoting "no parking, fire lane" and there are only two fire lane signs in the whole complex, and they specifically mark an area next to a park where the red on the curb had been recently sandblasted -- removing the fire lane there. The place where I parked actually looked like it was in the process of being sandblasted -- I actually chose that spot over others that were marked more clearly. About three hours later at 11:00 at night, I go outside to leave, and my car's gone. Thinking it was probably towed because I had misinterpreted the condition of the curb and had, indeed, parked in a fire lane, I go to the front gate and get the number for the tow company. They tell me that they don't have my car. Panicked, I call the cops thinking that my car had been stolen. A few minutes later, I get a phone call tell me that my car had been towed by a different towing company. I call them and they tell me that they only accept cash, and that they had picked my car up on patrol. Both of which are illegal. The next day I go in to get my car, and behold! there is a credit card machine in clear sight. However, it appears to have been hastily moved and there is nothing posted saying that they take credit cards (another sitipulation in the cvc). Their story about patrol towing has changed as well... all of a sudden they were called in by a security company that doesn't exist. The towing company made me really suspicious.

So I'm left wondering: is patrol towing legal if the car is parked in a fire lane? Can I press a suit against them for telling me that I had to come in with exact change, and that they didn't accept credit card, even though they did manage to produce a credit card machine. Can I press suit against the property manager for poor maintenance of their property? Or the lack of proper sinage?
 


patstew

Member
Use the search box at the top of the page and look for some combination of "illegal" "towing" and "California." This sort of situation has been posted here many times with multiple responses of good advice.
 

lostnspiration

Junior Member
...

I actually have looked, thats how I got the information on civil codes and such. none seem to answer the questions I've asked, though.
 

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