Towing Issues: Lien Sale of car after only 5 days of impound, dmv ca, dmv web

Question
We live in Contra Costa County in CA and my husband got into a accident and our car had to be towed. Well that happened on Saturday 23, 2010, so Monday 25th I went down to the place to find out how much it was going to cost and to get a couple of things out of the car. And at that time it's only been there 3 days (including Sat) it was going to be $555 to get it out (which we don't have at that time), but then the lady told me if we didn't pick up our car by Wednesday 27th that it was going to be sold in a lien sale Wednesday 27th and she told me this after she said asked for the key and said she needed the key in case they had to move it around in the lot (which I gave her). So my question is can they sell my car like that if they only had it for a total of 5 days? Also can they do it without any notification except that Monday 25th when she verbally told me it was going to be sold on the Wednesday 27th?

Answer
The following are links to web sites for Ca DMV. The towing company is required to wait 15 days before even filing for a lien sale. The DMV web site is very easy to use and contains lots of information. Let me know if you need anything else

http://www.dmv.ca.gov/

http://www.dmv.ca.gov/pubs/brochures/howto/htvr7.htm

http://www.dmv.ca.gov/pubs/vctop/appndxa/civil/civ3072.htm