QuestionTwo friends and I parked at a gas station for the fourth weekend in a row after carpooling and upon returning after two days discover all 3 of our cars were towed. We had verbal authorization to park there from a manager but a different manager had our cars towed, saying all three were in the way of the gas truck's pump. We were told which spaces to park in so as there was a space left for the truck, plus it could have parked on the other side.
It's all fishy because even if they had to tow a car to get the truck in, there would be no reason they would need to tow all three. So it all will come back to whether or not the verbal authorization will stand as a valid reason to have the gas station or manager pay for illegally towing our vehicles. If verbal authorization is good enough, would this classify as auto theft by the manager for illegally towing our cars?
AnswerYour verbal authorization is only worth the paper it is written on.
That being said, it sounds like there are issues here and while one person gave you permission I highly doubt they would allow "long term" parking such as you described.
Your vehicles might have been in the way of the gas tankers as they take up lots of space to park and they do not turn on a dime... They are about 70 feet long.
Now each City and State have laws regarding vehicles which are illegally parked and you did not tell me where this is, and so I can not provide specific information on if they did break the law in authorization of the tow aways, due to illegal signs or anything, but the tanker issue will over ride most reasons.
As to the auto theft idea, NOPE... It is just illegal or predatory parking and that is what the judge would rule in a Small Claims Court case. No written authorization exists to give you permission to park and even then it would not be long term authorization unless you were paying for the spaces.
Sorry to have bad answers for you.
