Towing Issues: Storage charges incident to criminal investigations, felony offense, local police department

Question
This question is coming from Colorado. If a vehicle is held by law enforcement as a result of an alleged criminal act and stored at a private tow storage facility, who must pay the bill? Does the law enforcement agency pay the bill or is it the responsibility of the owner of the vehicle?

For example, a vehicle is impounded by police because the VIN plate has been removed (a felony offense). The vehicle is stored at a private tow facility. After investigation, police determine they have insufficient evidence to proceed with criminal filing. At that point, storage charges have accrued. Who is responsible for the charges? Again, we are talking about Colorado.
Thanks in advance.

Answer
As a rule the "registered vehicle owner" is responsible for all towing and storage charges be it law enforcement ordered or towed for illegal parking in a private parking lot.

But in very few cases, you will have law enforcement paying for towing and storage due to investigations. But that is very rare.

I am not sure how long your vehicle was stored at the tow company, which if it is a very long time you might be faced with a huge bill. But investigations like this usually do not take much more than a few days up to a week. But that depends on the local police department and how fast they work.

Now remember that the tow company, even though they responded to the call from the police department and stored the vehicle, is a private business which is not tax payer supported. So the do charge for their services, which might be under contract rates which might help you price wise.


Hope this helps.