Sounds like a episode of Dukes of Hazard where Rosco puts a fake fire hydrant down next to a park car then write a ticket to make money. Maybe that's where they got the idea from.
The difference is that Roscoe wasn't venal or malicious, whereas Philly...is where grown men in Eagles gear talk shit to little kids wearing other teams' jerseys just to make them cry.
@@paulforester6996 in one episode, Hoyt Axton gets caught in Boss Hogg's celebrity speedtrap and sings a song called out of state cars about a corrupt town with a remote controlled red light to generate revenue. Rosco is seen taking notes when hoyt explains that the yellow light only lasts 1/10 of a second LOL.
Cameras likely owned by the same people declaring these spots off limits. In a city where parking is at a premium, wouldn’t shock me at all if private lot owners abuse this system to turn parking spots over. Just have a driver dump them wherever.
That 'system' may itself be a fabrication to facilitate the system. We only have their word that the vehicle wasn't impounded direct from the legal parking spot.
@Donny D well, first things first. If anything, make an absolute demand for the precipitating cause. Either the event, incident, or maintainable that required the tow is divulged, or the people that are stonewalling will begin to receive criminal complaints. Yes, you can do this, and it doesn't require a police force, nor any other law enforcement agency. Anyone that refuses to do their job thereafter gets another criminal complaint. Once it gets so far down the line, well before it gets to the Federal level, a certain set of people will start to take notice. The people that bond and indemnify them. They lose thay, they become unemployable. To them, that's worse than jail, and they can be wiped put in a lawsuit. People need to start filing the criminal charges, and right now.
Racketeering charges for everybody in the entire chain, permanently terminate the license of every tow company that partnered in this massive criminal enterprise, and a lifetime ban for everybody in the tow business who was enriched by it. And publish ALL the names. Then start using bait cars with GPS and camera surveillance. Put them in the public eye and make it so big and so ugly that the city can't ignore it.
You should check out a story Out of Philly from back in 2013 about up about a traffic court Scandal which put three of the judges in federal court and they serve Federal time
If they TOWED the city's cars and the mayor's cars this would stop INSTANLY Put the politicians cars and trucks at a MILITERY base. Federal land towing is a lot harder to get car back. And a ton of PAPERWORK. Might even get a hearing and wait a year before retrieving car. Their crap would freeze before pulling ILLEGAL tows for profits. Make sure you put it in all the local papers. Taxpayer's will throw a fit at having to foot the bill on their illegal tows in the first place will ram the nonsense down their throats in court.
Living in a big city reminds me of Thomas Jefferson's remarks about overpopulated Europe. "Like rats crawling all over each other." We have a responsibility to remember that our rights end when another's begins. Otherwise we have unequal rights.
A lot of our cities are becoming little banana republics. This is why I moved from Seattle to rural Kentucky almost 11 years ago. It totally changed my life in a very, very good way.
@@utah133 haha! I used to joke with people that though I loved Kentucky it was still under the rule of the two dumbest laws ever passed in the United states. That would be prohibition and forced School busing. But interestingly, though I moved to a dry county, I was literally just a couple of miles from a liquor store in a wet county. That wet county was also the home to the cornbread Mafia. Pretty much all the counties are wet now. They've all gone wet just in the last seven or eight years. Pretty remarkable. I think Jefferson county is the only School district that still does busing, but that would be expected, since they're The bluest county in the entire state.
If they see a car they like or want, they take it... sit on it, and hope they can pass it off to who wanted it within the city. When I used to work in a technical profession, I was offered various impound cars. Some of them were never claimed by the people. This is just legalized taking or theft.
A courtesy tow can be valid in some cases such as a failed water main. Cars can be moved to give access to the repair crew. But who ever moves the car has a duty of care.
Kind of just this time it is illegal under the law. Grand theft auto, extortion, selling stolen goods, and most likely other crimes too. So as they did not go and take them under the law they are stolen. As the value is most likely over $1000 it is grand theft. As it is a car it is auto theft. As they try to get you to pay for your own car back it is extortion. As they put it up for auction and sell it it is selling stolen goods.
@@tonypegler3618 Well that one only applies to the police not the towing company, the towing employee, and a few others in this chain of who is being sued.
Same thing happened to a friend of ours. MD plates in VA. Sign says no overnight parking without sticker. Friend goes over there in the evening to tend to a friend’s dog while she was on vacation. Goes home to MD. Returns next morning to tend to dog again. Tow company comes along and tows car. Says he saw it the prior evening therefore it must have been there overnight.
You joke, but seriously whats stopping people from just coming and taking their property back with force? Someone steals one of my cars and tells me I have to pay a grand to get it back, they're going to have a really bad time. I'd have no problem taking a pound of flesh for the initial transgression and an additional pound of flesh for anything the initial pound might set in motion.
Years ago, we once ('82, '83?) had to leave my GF's rough '62 Plymouth in a legal parking spot within a residential subdivision after it began overheating. Next morning she received a call from a man indentifying as a TN State Trooper, informing her that it had been towed from a no parking zone. When I went to check the parking spot I noticed two tracks of rubber on the pavement starting from where we had parked (legally) and ending up the street in a space next to a no parking sign. When we got the car back I noticed two deep, dark smuges on the rear bumper that weren't there before. And that's when the light bulb went off. Turns out the distance between the smuges was a perfect match with the push bumper used on THP patrol cars. More snooping uncovered that the spot we first left the car put it smack dab in front of the home of the very trooper that had called the GF about the tow. Used a police buddy back channel to make sure he heard about our discovery, but never heard anything back about it.
We were in Baltimore, the price of a parking ticket was $25.00. The price of parking in a garage overnight was $30.00. We just paid 4 parking tickets and saved $20.00.
I currently live in Philadelphia and have been for 22 years now. This is so true and not just with this Courtesy Tow. The reason why the Name of the Towing Company will never be given is because someone is getting Kick-Backs from the Towing Companies and don't want the Flow of Funds to Stop.
This brings back memories of when I moved into a small town 20 miles north of Philly. One of the local cops resented me purchasing a home his lawyer friend wanted, direct from the VA. I was a veteran his friend was not. And it cost me a days lost pay, and a $100 fine. When after I left for work. He placed a temporary no parking sign up and "towed" my car to the Boro garage. I reported it stolen and the Sergeant said no, it was just moved and I could pick it up, no ticket was issued. After I picked up the car, the original cop wrote up a parking ticket, and criminal trespass charges. I fought and lost. And smile the JP said if I wanted to risk jail time I could appeal.
Planning on auctioning off a car because it was impounded for 9 days. That seems awfully quick. I thought they had to keep it for 90 days or something before it goes to auction.
The only reason it's legal is because some city officials believe they have the power to do anything they want to. As far as they're concerned the citizens don't have rights, only privileges that can be snatched away whenever they please.
This happened to me. I live in Montreal, and many years ago I lived downtown. When they have to do Snow Removal, a truck with a loud siren will slowly pass down the street. All residents need to go to their cars and move them to allow the snow trucks to have unrestricted access to the street, as they blow the snow into a long train of dump trucks who then haul it to a designated dumping area. It's quite an operation. Unfortunately, they rarely keep to any schedule, and I happened to not be at home when they passed. So they tow your car to another street nearby, in my case it was 10 blocks away. I asked the siren truck where my car was towed when I returned home later, as they were still in the area, and they couldn't tell me, and said try calling the head office. There was no record of where I was towed, so I couldn't find the car. To make matters worse, all the cars were covered in snow from the storm, and this makes all cars look alike, so you could walk past your car and no recognize it. It took a full week to find my car, a friend spotted it as it was so far (10 blocks) which is a lot of walking downtown Montreal. But when I went to get it, there were about 6 parking tickets on the windshield, as the spot they towed it to was no parking during certain hours. I ended up going to traffic court, explained what had happened, and they cancelled all the tickets. But if it wasn't for a friend spotting it, I never would have found it. They need a better system, like a picture of the car in the new spot on their website sorted by license plate numbers so you can look up where they put it. P.S. Love your show, and I notice you often wear McGill t-shirt. I went to McGill, in fact this towing happened when I was a student living in the McGill Ghetto. Did you go to McGill? Undergrad or Law? Keep up the great work. PPS maybe do a show on the rights and requirements of Tourist (IE Canadians) who get pulled over in the USA. Is it the same? Can we invoke 1st or 4th Amendment rights? What about walking down the street, are are equal rights when there not on visa, but just say in Florida for 2 week vacation.
Promotion. Low level employees might need to be disciplined for PR, but the architects will be fine. Which of course is a miscarriage of justice, but that's the system working as intended.
Homer to Burns: “Here are your messages. "You have 30 minutes to move your car." "You have ten minutes." "Your car has been impounded." "Your car has been crushed into a cube." “You have 30 minutes to move your cube."
It would be interesting to see this happen to a Tesla, that can record around the car, and track the GPS locations. Exhibit A video would cut through the crap.
@@aldopopow8884 not really it’s a scam that’s been done many times over lot owners pay a tow driver under the table to move cars out of a lot so they can sell the parking spot again, the tow drivers know no one bothers to police the relation towing and they just drop the car in either the first spot they find, legal or not, or if they have a towing contract with the police they leave it where they will get a call and paid to tow it again. City is just turning a blind eye to the problem cause it’s not affecting them so why spend the time and money to fix it
Any time qualified immunity is used by a government employee, they need to be imprisoned for ten years in prison and any pension plan confiscated. Problem solved.
It would be interesting to cross reference a list of Towing Companies and their owners with a list of Campaign Contributions to Philadelphia politicians. Could there be some overlap? The City likely gets its cut out of this racket. But my guess is that the big money is flowing to the Towing Companies and through them onward to the politicians.
OMG There’s a show called Philadelphia Parking Wars . They still show the old episodes. So If you haven’t seen it you need to. It is very interesting, funny and scary. After watching the show I swore I would never go to Philadelphia with a car. I believe this is the major source of revenue for the city.
I live near Philly. This is the same city that, for years, has been randomly going through PennDot databases to get license plate numbers and sending parking tickets to people who have ever been to philly in the car that was ticketed.
Yep; Happened to my brother. The reason he realized this was his new car had the wrong license plate. The only place where the description of the car, the license plate number, and his address were available was on the PennDUH database.
I get a ticket on my work van every time I have to go to a Verizon CO to do a delivery or clean out. They basically make the entire street in front of the building a no parking zone.
You assume they are acting for the city… sounds much more to me like they are using a system no one has any control over as a front to basically turn over paid parking spots. They can simply say it was a “ courtesy tow” no one asks questions no paper trail
Hey Steve, I'm sure you are aware of the city of Taylor, MI, their tow yard was ran by cousins of council members for years, it was a huge racket for them from the mid 90's to who knows when...
Father to son: where did you get the idea that life was "fair"? Mother adds: this is why we can't have nice things. Well, I always thought mom and dad hadn't really got to the bottom of things anyway . . .
There is a song about a towing company called Lincoln Park towing in Chicago. The song is called Lincoln Park Pirates sung by Steve Goodman. Look up album version of the song it tells about towing in Chicago in the 60s and 70s.
Take a photo of your car when you park it. Require tow companies to take a photo before towing a car, and make them immediately liable if their photo doesn’t exist or doesn’t reasonably match the photo you took when you parked it.
The city officials and tow company owner should be sued and charged with grand theft auto/theft, racketeering, extortion. They should also be charged and prosecuted under title 18 U.S.C. sections 241 conspiracy against rights and 242 deprivation of rights under color of law.
Yup you pay whatever to park in the lot, they have the tow driver go drop ya wherever and the next guy pays for your spot again. Lot owner gets rich and the city just turns a blind eye
Parking in a lot of city’s is a premium resource, and if you can make hundreds a day reselling the same parking spot and can find a way to just go dump people’s cars wherever without any recourse, best bet it’s not going to take long for every shady lot owner to get in on the scam
This is when you wish government employees would be personally fined for stupidity. Things will never change without there being consequences for the individuals responsible.
Yea, my wife got a parking ticket mailed to her from Washington DC parking enforcement for 35.00 for parking in a loading zone.... problem was, we've never been to DC.. had tried to fight, but it was far cheaper to pay it.... we live 3 hours away and not worth taking time off...
Many years ago, I got a parking ticket in the mail, for someplace in Northern California. Problem was, I live in the southern part of the state. I phoned to the parking enforcement of that locality and told them that I never was as far north as Central California, let alone Northern California. As requested, I made a statement to that fact and never heard about this again.
It is interesting how all the victims are named but no details on how the process works or who is responsible. We are not good at getting to the root of problems.
Detroit 1981. My brother loaded a U-Haul with all of his belongings, was moving to Az. Trucked parked in our own driveway. Woke up to find the truck missing, reported it. It was towed in the middle of the night and delivered to impound lot with no explanation. He had to pay towing and storage to stop U-Haul charges plus nearly everything in the truck was gone.
What I don't understand is why can tow companies charge so much money for keeping a car they stole on their lot? Their parking lots must be made of gold or something.
Also, are you going to do a video on the recent Michigan virtual court case where the abuser & victim in the same house? The prosecutor noticed something was odd how the victim was acting while the defendant seemed to be making directive motions.
Put a $1 stamp on your title/registration and autograph (not a signature) across the stamp, this makes you the postmaster and your car is now mail, subject to up to 5 years in prison: _18 U.S. Code § 1708 - Theft or receipt of stolen mail matter generally_ Also include a notice of rental agreement, that anyone that takes your property for whatever reason without first receiving express written permission, they agree to a rental fee of $1000 per day, for any part of a day.
Just now watching this video and had an interesting thought, wouldn't this be a clear-cut case of entrapment by police officers if they're requesting your legally parked vehicle to be towed to an illegal parking spot i e forcing you to commit a crime you would not have otherwise committed?
My dream car stereo system. 8-track, 8-track cassette adapter, cassette CD adapter, CD player and connected to an mp3 player. I may need to update this insanity...more wires!
I had a courtesy tow in Chicago (last century) and fortunately they towed it to a legal spot. Back then, civil servants weren't trying to build profit - I do not know about today. I did my time in the city.
I suspect the details regarding who is responsible for the bad tows and misplaced notices are "lost" for public safety reasons. The quality of life for those individuals would be severely compromised if their identities were to be made public.
I have an all-in-one printer/scanner/fax in my house, with a magicJack internet phone adapter connected to it. So I have a fax machine in my house with it's own phone number. The magicJack costs $35 a year and I don't use it very often, but when I need it, it's pretty handy to have. This story is another reason I have never lived where I have to park on the street.
Putting a no parking sign in front of a car already legally parked. That is a classic move by Rosco P. Coltrane 🤣🤣🤣 I know I saw that on The Dukes of Hazzard at least once.
In the City Of Baltimore, there is a similar system of relocating cars. This is only done under extreme circumstances however. If your car is legally parked and a heavy snowstorm happens, it may be relocated to plow the street. Also if there is an emergency such as a fire, water main break, gas leak etc. , cars that are in front of or near the scene will be towed so that the cars are out of harms way. The city usually tows them to one of the sports stadiums parking lots and there is no charge to get them back unless the car is on the boot list or has invalid tags/registration or other violations.
I'm from New York City and have experienced this "curtesy tow" a couple of times but not like THIS. Before the car was towed, a piece of paper was inserted into the wiper notifying the owner of the car that it would be towed at a preset time to a nearby area for whatever reason, usually road work or some kind of pipeline work. But it's usually within a 3-5 block radius.
there is no present - that is what i tell each of my kids ( brats ) twice a year. got shoes on your feet ? merry x-mas. got a shirt on your back ? happy birthday.
Start towing every city councillors cars and see how fast things change
If only that were possible. And set up a warrantless drone by their bedroom window to catch their reaction.
Gov't overreach is a growing issue.
This is exactly why the 2nd amendment give you the right to a baseball ball.
Ben Dover, it’s a problem that is solved by a baseball bat application to the knee caps of the owner of the towing company.
They will charge you with theft.
Amen to that one
Sounds like a episode of Dukes of Hazard where Rosco puts a fake fire hydrant down next to a park car then write a ticket to make money. Maybe that's where they got the idea from.
Where I lived, Dukes of Hazzard was a training video, for the police.
The difference is that Roscoe wasn't venal or malicious, whereas Philly...is where grown men in Eagles gear talk shit to little kids wearing other teams' jerseys just to make them cry.
I thought the exact same thing LOL.
@@paulforester6996 in one episode, Hoyt Axton gets caught in Boss Hogg's celebrity speedtrap and sings a song called out of state cars about a corrupt town with a remote controlled red light to generate revenue. Rosco is seen taking notes when hoyt explains that the yellow light only lasts 1/10 of a second LOL.
@@paulforester6996 💀 OMG . . . . . . .
Cameras everywhere yet no one knows what happened.
Right? For some reason I bet they would have no problem tracking someone down that did a drive by on that same street.
@@digitalninja85 A highly professional scammer could figure out what direction the majority of the cameras were facing to begin with.
Cameras likely owned by the same people declaring these spots off limits. In a city where parking is at a premium, wouldn’t shock me at all if private lot owners abuse this system to turn parking spots over. Just have a driver dump them wherever.
@@willjenkins4195 1000% likely.
@@MiA-in5ph If it were the City of London UK, There is no direction that cameras are not facing .
"Sorry our system that doesn't work benefits the city financially so it's working as intended"
That 'system' may itself be a fabrication to facilitate the system. We only have their word that the vehicle wasn't impounded direct from the legal parking spot.
That's not a bug in the system. It's a feature.
If they aren't divulging the name of the tow company, one could claim cronyism and protectionism, both illegal.
@Donny D well, first things first.
If anything, make an absolute demand for the precipitating cause.
Either the event, incident, or maintainable that required the tow is divulged, or the people that are stonewalling will begin to receive criminal complaints.
Yes, you can do this, and it doesn't require a police force, nor any other law enforcement agency.
Anyone that refuses to do their job thereafter gets another criminal complaint.
Once it gets so far down the line, well before it gets to the Federal level, a certain set of people will start to take notice.
The people that bond and indemnify them.
They lose thay, they become unemployable.
To them, that's worse than jail, and they can be wiped put in a lawsuit.
People need to start filing the criminal charges, and right now.
Good luck closing that revenue stream. That city has a pretty good scam going, they're not going to give it up willingly.
Nailed 10:32..revenue stream
Better double check if the city parks on your property if you can sell that vehicle now after 30 days. Just as you know, as a courtesy
They'll give it up willingly if enough of them get a appointment with Dr. Louisville Slugger.
Racketeering charges for everybody in the entire chain, permanently terminate the license of every tow company that partnered in this massive criminal enterprise, and a lifetime ban for everybody in the tow business who was enriched by it. And publish ALL the names. Then start using bait cars with GPS and camera surveillance. Put them in the public eye and make it so big and so ugly that the city can't ignore it.
You should check out a story Out of Philly from back in 2013 about up about a traffic court Scandal which put three of the judges in federal court and they serve Federal time
Steve says it's going to take a judge to stop this.
I say, good luck finding a judge with such integrity.
Two words: "Federal Court."
@@stevelehto Two more words. Class Action. For the bonus word, Racketeering. I'm not a lawyer, though.
@@stevelehto two words: "no standing"
If they TOWED the city's cars and the mayor's cars this would stop INSTANLY
Put the politicians cars and trucks at a MILITERY base. Federal land towing is a lot harder to get car back. And a ton of PAPERWORK. Might even get a hearing and wait a year before retrieving car. Their crap would freeze before pulling ILLEGAL tows for profits. Make sure you put it in all the local papers. Taxpayer's will throw a fit at having to foot the bill on their illegal tows in the first place will ram the nonsense down their throats in court.
@@stevelehto Maybe the federal court can take up the issue right after addressing civil asset forfeiture 😆
I'm glad you're the optimistic type Steve.
sounds like another form of civil asset forfeiture to me
This just in: extortion is legal in Philadelphia.
You couldn't pay me to work or live in a big city. Cities are no place for people.
Nobody lives in cities anymore - they're too crowded.
Living in a big city reminds me of Thomas Jefferson's remarks about overpopulated Europe. "Like rats crawling all over each other." We have a responsibility to remember that our rights end when another's begins. Otherwise we have unequal rights.
I'm a dirt road gal myself 😃
@@katiekane5247 Would that be a "Dirty Back Road"??😇💜
@@Dreddy72 Good one !!!
A lot of our cities are becoming little banana republics. This is why I moved from Seattle to rural Kentucky almost 11 years ago. It totally changed my life in a very, very good way.
Yeah, and then look what happened to Seattle last year. Sounds like you made the right move.
I lived near Richmond for 5 years. Yes, Kentucky is quite free of excessive regulations! (Except for liquor laws. I had to drive 8 miles to buy beer.)
Moving from such a liberal waste land as Seattle is totally understandable.
@@utah133 haha! I used to joke with people that though I loved Kentucky it was still under the rule of the two dumbest laws ever passed in the United states. That would be prohibition and forced School busing. But interestingly, though I moved to a dry county, I was literally just a couple of miles from a liquor store in a wet county. That wet county was also the home to the cornbread Mafia. Pretty much all the counties are wet now. They've all gone wet just in the last seven or eight years. Pretty remarkable.
I think Jefferson county is the only School district that still does busing, but that would be expected, since they're The bluest county in the entire state.
Tow companies are in cahoots with the police and politicians.
Yep. This ain't happening by accident.
@@scawarren "Hey, we will give you a portion of the fees if you help us commit these crimes" LOL
There always has been - there's a substantial kickback from the tow company to the cop that calls them, usually in cash when they show up.
Absolutely. Its usually an elected officials friend or family that owns the tow company that gets the bid. Funny how that happens
If they see a car they like or want, they take it... sit on it, and hope they can pass it off to who wanted it within the city. When I used to work in a technical profession, I was offered various impound cars. Some of them were never claimed by the people. This is just legalized taking or theft.
This "curtesy tow" falls under the same category as seizing your property under public domain.
A courtesy tow can be valid in some cases such as a failed water main. Cars can be moved to give access to the repair crew.
But who ever moves the car has a duty of care.
Kind of just this time it is illegal under the law. Grand theft auto, extortion, selling stolen goods, and most likely other crimes too. So as they did not go and take them under the law they are stolen. As the value is most likely over $1000 it is grand theft. As it is a car it is auto theft. As they try to get you to pay for your own car back it is extortion. As they put it up for auction and sell it it is selling stolen goods.
4th amendment violation
Qualified Immunity :p
@@tonypegler3618 Well that one only applies to the police not the towing company, the towing employee, and a few others in this chain of who is being sued.
Same thing happened to a friend of ours. MD plates in VA. Sign says no overnight parking without sticker. Friend goes over there in the evening to tend to a friend’s dog while she was on vacation. Goes home to MD. Returns next morning to tend to dog again. Tow company comes along and tows car. Says he saw it the prior evening therefore it must have been there overnight.
I thought the had to chalk the tires first for that kind of theft.
“We’re with the government, we’re here to help”
Minimally
HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA ..........!
Whenever you hear that phrase, run away
I say a typo in your statement:
“We’re with the government, we’re here to help ourselves.”
There. Fixed it.
@@wtimber run very very far away!
Big sign in the windshield that reads "Smile, you're on candid shotgun"
You joke, but seriously whats stopping people from just coming and taking their property back with force? Someone steals one of my cars and tells me I have to pay a grand to get it back, they're going to have a really bad time. I'd have no problem taking a pound of flesh for the initial transgression and an additional pound of flesh for anything the initial pound might set in motion.
Years ago, we once ('82, '83?) had to leave my GF's rough '62 Plymouth in a legal parking spot within a residential subdivision after it began overheating. Next morning she received a call from a man indentifying as a TN State Trooper, informing her that it had been towed from a no parking zone. When I went to check the parking spot I noticed two tracks of rubber on the pavement starting from where we had parked (legally) and ending up the street in a space next to a no parking sign. When we got the car back I noticed two deep, dark smuges on the rear bumper that weren't there before. And that's when the light bulb went off. Turns out the distance between the smuges was a perfect match with the push bumper used on THP patrol cars. More snooping uncovered that the spot we first left the car put it smack dab in front of the home of the very trooper that had called the GF about the tow. Used a police buddy back channel to make sure he heard about our discovery, but never heard anything back about it.
We were in Baltimore, the price of a parking ticket was $25.00. The price of parking in a garage overnight was $30.00. We just paid 4 parking tickets and saved $20.00.
when I was younger "the old Philadelphia courtesy tow" was when they dragged you from a bar stool to the curb outside
I currently live in Philadelphia and have been for 22 years now.
This is so true and not just with this Courtesy Tow.
The reason why the Name of the Towing Company will never be given is
because someone is getting Kick-Backs from the Towing Companies
and don't want the Flow of Funds to Stop.
Sounds like the IRS needs to audit some people to find out where the kickbacks are. Wouldn’t this fall under a RICO violation?
As you have said before, the city gets away with this kind of thing because 'they rely on the revenue'. Fixing this, doing it properly, costs money.
City takes your vehicle, then holds it for ransom. You can't write this and make it believable LOL.
That's bullshit. I rely on money and so does everyone else, but most of us don't do around stealing people's cars to pay our bills.
@@Mattribute Are you the government?
@@avi8r66 Why do you ask?
@@Mattribute
Government: you didn't vote to pay more taxes, what did you expect us to do?
This brings back memories of when I moved into a small town 20 miles north of Philly. One of the local cops resented me purchasing a home his lawyer friend wanted, direct from the VA. I was a veteran his friend was not.
And it cost me a days lost pay, and a $100 fine. When after I left for work. He placed a temporary no parking sign up and "towed" my car to the Boro garage. I reported it stolen and the Sergeant said no, it was just moved and I could pick it up, no ticket was issued.
After I picked up the car, the original cop wrote up a parking ticket, and criminal trespass charges. I fought and lost. And smile the JP said if I wanted to risk jail time I could appeal.
Petty tyrants.
Planning on auctioning off a car because it was impounded for 9 days. That seems awfully quick. I thought they had to keep it for 90 days or something before it goes to auction.
World full of cameras but no one knows who towed the car
Sounds like it's time for a Federal RICO (Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations) complaint. This perfectly fits the definition.
If the mob towed it, no broken window or removed tag, and they'd give you a ride to your car.
It is never a RICO case. Any case.
I don´t see how courtesy towing is legal without much more hefty documentation
The only reason it's legal is because some city officials believe they have the power to do anything they want to. As far as they're concerned the citizens don't have rights, only privileges that can be snatched away whenever they please.
@@tarakhenight6185
Some city officials have the privilege of life.......
Easy, hard to pin blame when everyone just points fingers at everyone else
This happened to me. I live in Montreal, and many years ago I lived downtown. When they have to do Snow Removal, a truck with a loud siren will slowly pass down the street. All residents need to go to their cars and move them to allow the snow trucks to have unrestricted access to the street, as they blow the snow into a long train of dump trucks who then haul it to a designated dumping area. It's quite an operation. Unfortunately, they rarely keep to any schedule, and I happened to not be at home when they passed. So they tow your car to another street nearby, in my case it was 10 blocks away. I asked the siren truck where my car was towed when I returned home later, as they were still in the area, and they couldn't tell me, and said try calling the head office. There was no record of where I was towed, so I couldn't find the car. To make matters worse, all the cars were covered in snow from the storm, and this makes all cars look alike, so you could walk past your car and no recognize it. It took a full week to find my car, a friend spotted it as it was so far (10 blocks) which is a lot of walking downtown Montreal. But when I went to get it, there were about 6 parking tickets on the windshield, as the spot they towed it to was no parking during certain hours. I ended up going to traffic court, explained what had happened, and they cancelled all the tickets. But if it wasn't for a friend spotting it, I never would have found it. They need a better system, like a picture of the car in the new spot on their website sorted by license plate numbers so you can look up where they put it. P.S. Love your show, and I notice you often wear McGill t-shirt. I went to McGill, in fact this towing happened when I was a student living in the McGill Ghetto. Did you go to McGill? Undergrad or Law? Keep up the great work. PPS maybe do a show on the rights and requirements of Tourist (IE Canadians) who get pulled over in the USA. Is it the same? Can we invoke 1st or 4th Amendment rights? What about walking down the street, are are equal rights when there not on visa, but just say in Florida for 2 week vacation.
This is what happens when ignorance meets bureaucracy.
Most likely, it's not ignorance, it's corruption.
I thought bureaucracy was ignorance.
What do you expect from bureaucrats? Have you ever met an intelligent one?
Ignorance? Nope. They know *exactly* what they're doing.
That was the most disturbing thing i heard today. I hope some of those officials that are responsible for this get arrested.
Grand Theft Auto. Literally.
they cant, they are all protected, that iswhy they get away with out right lying to the public,,,
Promotion. Low level employees might need to be disciplined for PR, but the architects will be fine. Which of course is a miscarriage of justice, but that's the system working as intended.
Homer to Burns: “Here are your messages.
"You have 30 minutes to move your car."
"You have ten minutes."
"Your car has been impounded."
"Your car has been crushed into a cube."
“You have 30 minutes to move your cube."
It would be interesting to see this happen to a Tesla, that can record around the car, and track the GPS locations. Exhibit A video would cut through the crap.
They would try to dismiss it as "inadmissible", probably citing "wire tapping" laws LOL.
@@ddrhazy Yeah like NYC where both are an issue
Jesse Linch Would cut through the crap but you *don't* get a hearing. And folks wonder why some people go postal.
Loved your new VinWiki video Mr. Lehto on what to do when being pulled over in your nation.
Big hugz.
Best to leave the GPS tracker installed by the dealer or install one of your own....
City of Brotherly love. Remind me to never go there again
Some strange usage of the word "courtesy" that I'm not familiar with.
Some PR firm got a lot of money to change that term from “forced relocation” it’s much friendlier now you see
It is a courteous way for them to extort money from you
@@aldopopow8884 not really it’s a scam that’s been done many times over lot owners pay a tow driver under the table to move cars out of a lot so they can sell the parking spot again, the tow drivers know no one bothers to police the relation towing and they just drop the car in either the first spot they find, legal or not, or if they have a towing contract with the police they leave it where they will get a call and paid to tow it again. City is just turning a blind eye to the problem cause it’s not affecting them so why spend the time and money to fix it
Just like all legal fictions, completely incompatible with justice.
tesla cameras are going to be hilarious with this.
Any time qualified immunity is used by a government employee, they need to be imprisoned for ten years in prison and any pension plan confiscated. Problem solved.
It would be interesting to cross reference a list of Towing Companies and their owners with a list of Campaign Contributions to Philadelphia politicians. Could there be some overlap?
The City likely gets its cut out of this racket. But my guess is that the big money is flowing to the Towing Companies and through them onward to the politicians.
I am addicted to this site. You are so humorous the way you tell what happened.
Governments are good at only two things:
1) Taking your money
2) Gaining more power
Not only does law enforcement _“Police for Profit,”_ Philadelphia *“Courtesy Tows for Profit! ”*
Courtesy tow companies are first in line at the auctions I bet.
probably the friends and family of the cops who declared the "temporary no parking zone"
OMG
There’s a show called Philadelphia Parking Wars . They still show the old episodes. So If you haven’t seen it you need to. It is very interesting, funny and scary. After watching the show I swore I would never go to Philadelphia with a car. I believe this is the major source of revenue for the city.
My Dad and I drove to Philly many years ago to visit my grandmother. Someone stole Dad's hubcaps. I guess we were lucky!
I live near Philly. This is the same city that, for years, has been randomly going through PennDot databases to get license plate numbers and sending parking tickets to people who have ever been to philly in the car that was ticketed.
Yep; Happened to my brother. The reason he realized this was his new car had the wrong license plate. The only place where the description of the car, the license plate number, and his address were available was on the PennDUH database.
Yep. Been to Philly three times, got tickets each time. Parked legally. They know I'm not driving four hour to dispute it. Not going back.
I get a ticket on my work van every time I have to go to a Verizon CO to do a delivery or clean out. They basically make the entire street in front of the building a no parking zone.
"Philadelphia Courtesy Tow."
Is that like a Cleveland Steamer?
Wow when a tow truck acts as an agent for the city it comes under the care, custody and control of the city at that point on. This sounds Outrageous.
You assume they are acting for the city… sounds much more to me like they are using a system no one has any control over as a front to basically turn over paid parking spots. They can simply say it was a “ courtesy tow” no one asks questions no paper trail
What you're describing steve lehto is what's called a shakedown
Should have called it the "Corruption" Tow
Hey Steve, I'm sure you are aware of the city of Taylor, MI, their tow yard was ran by cousins of council members for years, it was a huge racket for them from the mid 90's to who knows when...
What a scam.
Sounds like a spin on Civil Asset Forfeiture to me!
Father to son: where did you get the idea that life was "fair"? Mother adds: this is why we can't have nice things. Well, I always thought mom and dad hadn't really got to the bottom of things anyway . . .
There is a song about a towing company called Lincoln Park towing in Chicago. The song is called Lincoln Park Pirates sung by Steve Goodman. Look up album version of the song it tells about towing in Chicago in the 60s and 70s.
There wouldn't be any Carnival Cruise discounts without fax machines.
Lmao, that brought back some old memories! I used to get those daily.
Man this happens everyday in Philly, NYC, Newark,NJ Jersey City, NJ.
I would be issuing some "courtesy" invoices to the city for my losses. :P
"Philadelphia courtesy tow" sounds about as desirable as a "Cleveland steamer" or a "dirty Sanchez"
Take a photo of your car when you park it.
Require tow companies to take a photo before towing a car, and make them immediately liable if their photo doesn’t exist or doesn’t reasonably match the photo you took when you parked it.
Same when you rent a car, take pictures before you leave and after you return it.
@@billd.6847 Nope, not doing that again. Made sure to return it in the rain.
In reference to the t-shirt Steve, you otter take the Viper to the Peaks of Otter Lodge in Bedford Va on the Blue Ridge Pkwy
Doesn't sound like a problem for the city.
Nope, the same tow guys dropping the cars in loading zones get the call to come impound it, make money on both ends under the city’s watchful eye 🤣
You can’t beat city hall
The city officials and tow company owner should be sued and charged with grand theft auto/theft, racketeering, extortion. They should also be charged and prosecuted under title 18 U.S.C. sections 241 conspiracy against rights and 242 deprivation of rights under color of law.
It's a SCAM. plain and simple.
Yup you pay whatever to park in the lot, they have the tow driver go drop ya wherever and the next guy pays for your spot again. Lot owner gets rich and the city just turns a blind eye
This is a shell game, and probably some kind of RICO activity.
It seems like every city has their own parking revenue scam.
Parking in a lot of city’s is a premium resource, and if you can make hundreds a day reselling the same parking spot and can find a way to just go dump people’s cars wherever without any recourse, best bet it’s not going to take long for every shady lot owner to get in on the scam
This is when you wish government employees would be personally fined for stupidity. Things will never change without there being consequences for the individuals responsible.
Sounds like he got a courtesy finger too!!
They rammed it hard in the backside
I read courtesy toe on CC. Yep, that’s about right.
Seems like the thing to do is toss a tow truck driver a $100 and a case of beers to "courtesy tow" the vehicles of these officials somewhere else.
Yea, my wife got a parking ticket mailed to her from Washington DC parking enforcement for 35.00 for parking in a loading zone.... problem was, we've never been to DC.. had tried to fight, but it was far cheaper to pay it.... we live 3 hours away and not worth taking time off...
Don't open the envelope, just write on the outside: Return to sender, no contract.
Many years ago, I got a parking ticket in the mail, for someplace in Northern California. Problem was, I live in the southern part of the state. I phoned to the parking enforcement of that locality and told them that I never was as far north as Central California, let alone Northern California. As requested, I made a statement to that fact and never heard about this again.
Philadelphia should adopt the South Dakota drug motto, slightly modified “Car theft, we’re (in) on it”.
"Courtesy" - you keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.
Ahh come on someone was paid good money to spin doctor “forded relocation” to sound more consumer friendly :-)
"Perhaps they smashed his window to prepare it for auction" i lost it, good one
It is interesting how all the victims are named but no details on how the process works or who is responsible. We are not good at getting to the root of problems.
I think even in city ordinance laws, you still have the right to face your accusers personally in court.
Detroit 1981. My brother loaded a U-Haul with all of his belongings, was moving to Az. Trucked parked in our own driveway. Woke up to find the truck missing, reported it. It was towed in the middle of the night and delivered to impound lot with no explanation. He had to pay towing and storage to stop U-Haul charges plus nearly everything in the truck was gone.
Ben - Top of last mic (Steve's far left).
Fuck he got me good with that one, could not see it
What I don't understand is why can tow companies charge so much money for keeping a car they stole on their lot? Their parking lots must be made of gold or something.
Gotta be someone, a lawyer or judge, out there to challenge these:
- Courtesy Tows
- Civil Forfeitures
- Other Official Scams
They are all on the take
Looks like a lawyer in Pennsylvania should start a class action to me.
Also, are you going to do a video on the recent Michigan virtual court case where the abuser & victim in the same house?
The prosecutor noticed something was odd how the victim was acting while the defendant seemed to be making directive motions.
Too late. He already did.
@mikiness analog he did that one already. Great minds think alike!
@@gerainedoss7123 Shows RUclips is not providing notifications for all uploads even though I have the bell clicked on "All".
@@w.p8960 Thank you muches, did not know that.
7.342
Hundo, unfolded, on top of the first mic from the right, on top of the main cabinet. 1k+.
5th 😱
"Lincoln Park Pirates"
Way hay tow then away the Lincoln Park Pirates are we from willmont to Gary there nothing so hairy we always collect are fee. Way hay tow then away.
The antics of the Philadelphia parking athority are legendary.
Put a $1 stamp on your title/registration and autograph (not a signature) across the stamp, this makes you the postmaster and your car is now mail, subject to up to 5 years in prison: _18 U.S. Code § 1708 - Theft or receipt of stolen mail matter generally_
Also include a notice of rental agreement, that anyone that takes your property for whatever reason without first receiving express written permission, they agree to a rental fee of $1000 per day, for any part of a day.
Philly sounds like a place I don't ever want to go to again.
They should sue them for 250 Bezos. 😁
I live a little west of Philly. The Parking Authority there is a nightmare.
You posted this Sunday morning at 10:00. Don't you sleep in?
He probably made it during the day and set it to scheduled release.
11 am eastern time. I do a live stream at 1 so sometimes I post the second Sunday video an hour earlier so as to not jam stuff together.
Just now watching this video and had an interesting thought, wouldn't this be a clear-cut case of entrapment by police officers if they're requesting your legally parked vehicle to be towed to an illegal parking spot i e forcing you to commit a crime you would not have otherwise committed?
Philly is a Democratic ran state! Thats all I'm gonna say...😂
Not saying Red is "innocent", but this does seem to occur more & more in blue states.
Ever see the TV show parking wars? They focus on the parking enforcement of Philly parking
"Courtesy Tow" is a euphemism for "Grand Theft Auto"
Sounds like folks in Philadelphia should start booting their own cars.
My dream car stereo system. 8-track, 8-track cassette adapter, cassette CD adapter, CD player and connected to an mp3 player. I may need to update this insanity...more wires!
This is why Paul Newman cut the heads off all those gum ball machines in cool hand like. Lmao.
I had a courtesy tow in Chicago (last century) and fortunately they towed it to a legal spot. Back then, civil servants weren't trying to build profit - I do not know about today. I did my time in the city.
I suspect the details regarding who is responsible for the bad tows and misplaced notices are "lost" for public safety reasons. The quality of life for those individuals would be severely compromised if their identities were to be made public.
I have an all-in-one printer/scanner/fax in my house, with a magicJack internet phone adapter connected to it. So I have a fax machine in my house with it's own phone number. The magicJack costs $35 a year and I don't use it very often, but when I need it, it's pretty handy to have. This story is another reason I have never lived where I have to park on the street.
Putting a no parking sign in front of a car already legally parked. That is a classic move by Rosco P. Coltrane 🤣🤣🤣
I know I saw that on The Dukes of Hazzard at least once.
In the City Of Baltimore, there is a similar system of relocating cars. This is only done under extreme circumstances however. If your car is legally parked and a heavy snowstorm happens, it may be relocated to plow the street. Also if there is an emergency such as a fire, water main break, gas leak etc. , cars that are in front of or near the scene will be towed so that the cars are out of harms way. The city usually tows them to one of the sports stadiums parking lots and there is no charge to get them back unless the car is on the boot list or has invalid tags/registration or other violations.
I'm from New York City and have experienced this "curtesy tow" a couple of times but not like THIS. Before the car was towed, a piece of paper was inserted into the wiper notifying the owner of the car that it would be towed at a preset time to a nearby area for whatever reason, usually road work or some kind of pipeline work. But it's usually within a 3-5 block radius.
The Mayor's car needs to be courtesy towed.
there is no present - that is what i tell each of my kids ( brats ) twice a year.
got shoes on your feet ? merry x-mas. got a shirt on your back ? happy birthday.