Courtesy Towing

Now picture t Yeah, can be quite jarring actually. Wow. In P That's when the city tows legally parked cars to make way for utility work or even special events. But investigative reporter Liz Crawford found there's a big problem with t Some people go weeks without knowing what happened to their car. Aaron Cashman says he couldn't believe it. He was notified thanks to an app on Cashman called the lot and said he was told to pick the car up before midnight to avoid extra charges. Because every night there's an additional fee beyond the initial hundreds of dollars towing fee to the lot. And you were parked in a legal spot. I was parked in zone four, yeah. You see Cashman pays for a zone four parking permit, w So how did Well Cashman believes That's when a ve It could be police, the PPA or a private tow or Cashman said he's had I ran my bike and biked around and couldn't find it. The first time t He said he would usually call the city and police and then reach out towing companies. Not once did someone have a record of Most times he would find it days later parked somewhere outside zone four with parking tickets on it. Cashman said the parking authority would make We actually thought it was stolen a couple of the times. Cashman isn't alone. At least 30 other people are pursuing a class action lawsuit against the city for its courtesy tow practices. Our firm took the original lawsuit was filed in 2021. We're still litigating it today. In a 2023 motion to dismiss, the city argued, quote, given that their ve The judge denied that motion. The city told CBS News P The n I don't know because nobody seems to be keeping record. In October of last year, city council adopted a resolution to hold hearings to investigate courtesy towing. The resolution reads, quote, P It's been nearly six months since that resolution passed and a hearing still hasn't been scheduled. So what's the holdup? To find out, I asked all eight council members who sponsored that proposal for an interview. They either canceled on me last minute, declined to speak on the matter or never responded. Council member Jeffrey Young introduced the resolution. He emailed that If I would be irate to t Councilman Mark Squillett did talk to me. He wasn't a sponsor, but he is the vice chair of the Streets and Services Committee, w He's willing to look at ways the city can improve the courtesy towing system. The challenge is when they are towed, it's very complicated to find out where your car is. And I t According to the streets department, if a car is relocated, police are notified and they're supposed to keep a current log. We have clients who have never found the ve It'still not clear how Cashman's car ended up in the impound lot. He was able to pay the fees and get The letter reads, you must act or your ve You don't pick up the car. We will auction off your car. End of story, period. Now P Now the parking authority said they only conduct courtesy tows at the direction of the city. So there are a lot of moving parts. There's probably somebody watc That's me. What should they do? You suspect that your car could have been courtesy towed. The first t So go to their website, figure out what district you're in, call police. If the system works, police should have record of it. Should have. Yeah. Okay. Good work. Thank you. Thank you very much, Liz. Well, for more of what you saw in Liz'story there, just head to our website, cbsp com.