Police in Chicago have arrested three rogue tow truck drivers for stealing cars from parking spaces, streets, and worst of all, from people who had been involved in accidents. Police believe that there are more people involved than just these three, but this is a start. As the proud owner of a tow truck, these guys make me sick. Preying on people in moments of personal crisis should earn them a small corner in a jail cell for a long time.
Police began a special operation called, “Operation Hook ‘Em Up” after receiving numerous complaints from citizens that they had been victimized by a tow truck driver. As it turns out, the police operation was a success as they nabbed these three jerks quickly.
So what were these guys doing? They were using their wreckers as mobile car theft units. According to the Chicago Tribune, they wold steal random cars off the street or from parking lots and when they came upon an accident scene, they would steal that car (by pretending to help the owner, we’re sure) take it to a different location where the drivers would remove GPS units and whatever else they could strip, then tow the carcass to a scrap yard where it would be processed and crushed. The weird thing about that to me is the fact that locally, a title or proof of ownership is needed to scrap a car. Apparently it is wide open in Chi-town.
With any luck, these three goons will sing like canaries to the authorities and help to stop the rest of these jerks from doing their dirty deeds. I hope they narc their comrades out and then get the book thrown at ’em. Tow trucks are not a happy sight for a car owner but they are a sense of comfort and help in a time of need. For people to twist that into something evil for their own gain sucks out loud.
Link: Chicago Cops Bust Three Rogue Tow Truck Drivers
Yeah, we had a company do a variation of that here in the Bay Area.
They would hook up [steal] random vehicles and tow them to a lot and wait 30 days accumulating storage charges. Then they would contact the owners and hit ’em with a big bill.
The owners had a choice of being extorted or losing the car to the tow company. Apparently, a tow company can file for a new title for an “abandoned” vehicle after some period of time.
‘Good news is the owner got busted and is doing time. He’d run this scam for several years.
c1BAD66, that happened to me right here in maine…except they got away with it.
This is not a surprise. In fact there is a song called the “Lincoln Park Pirates” by Steve Goodman that was made back in the early 70’s playing parody to Chicago towing company tactics. Give it a listen, its pretty funny, sad, and true. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=389Rk1jzPMk