Towing Issues: Damaged body kit, tow truck company, smog check

Question
My 1998 Camaro was parked on the street in front of my house. It had an incomplete registration and was towed. The police officer never came to my house, no warning, didn't ask for keys. As it was getting lifted, the cable was touching & lifting the front lip. I grabbed my camera & took a few pictures. As it was going on the bed, the rear lip was scrapping the asphalt. Took pictures of that too. On the 180 report done by the police officer he did note paint chipping on the front lip & nothing else. When  I picked up my car, the rear lip had came off half way & scratched. The front lip, which had about 4" of paint chipping now had 14" of paint chipping. I talked to the manager, since he knew the police officer her called him over. The police officer said the car was not in that condition when picked up. The manager was rude and said he was denying any charges or damages & called it "pre existing damages" even though he saw the pictures. Both the police officer & the manager argued that the body kit was attached with double sided tape only. Which is not true. the police officer then seemed to side with the manager & was rude as well. Since then, my car has been parked inside the driveway. Need to do some repairs before I take it in for the smog check. One afternoon I was taking another car out of my driveway so I parked the Camaro out on the street & left it there for @ 2 hrs and was given another ticket for the same thing. Car impounded & 2 tickets in 2 weeks. I believe the police officer sent one of his buddies to do this, who knows how many times they had to drive by to finally see it out in the street. My neighbors have a car parked wrong way, wrecked from both the front & back end and it was not given a ticket. ..... What can I do here? Seems like taking the tow truck company to court is not a good idea, since it seems like I will have more problems with this police officer. However if I do go to small claims, how many estimates do I need? What can I do about the front, it did have prior damages but not to this extent. What can I expect?
Thank you!

Answer
Well since you mentioned the "180" form, I am guessing that you are in California...  

Yes in some areas unlicensed vehicles parked on the streets are targeted by police officers who see easy to ticket and win in court cases....
Remember that proof is the key in most cases...

As to the pictures of the vehicle being towed and the damages happening, well it sounds like the tow company might get away with part of it but when taken to small claims court, I bet that the pictures of it being dragged /scrapped might be your key in winning.
But you never know about the judge and how they will rule..

Now it might be that you are battling an officer who is "out for you now" since you did argue the case at the tow company and get him back in the picture...  But like you said, it might be worse if you go to court when dealing with the officer...

Now what to do about the damages, well if you were dealing with the tow company manager, then you might have to go further up and talk to the company owner. Be civil and calm, and keep great notes on what happens and who and when you talk to people in case you need them in court. This also works just like if you did not get anywhere with the police officer, you can always go up the ladder all the way to the police chief...

But remember as you said, it might get worse if you push the issue...
One of those darn if you do, darn if you don't do things....

The neighbors car, well that is a different issue, and I am going to bet that someone called in on our vehicle and complained about it. (taking a guess here, but body kit and unlicensed, it might be loud and you work on it a lot where you have it running?  Maybe someone does not like loud cars, or they think they have the right to park where you do on the public street.)


I would kind of weigh the idea of small claims court on the damages if you do not get anywhere with the tow company but make sure that it is worth the hassle and time to do this... Sometimes it is just better to walk away, and forget it..