Towing Issues: towing, tow truck operator, tow truck driver

Question
My friend met her boyfriend at a restaurant, parked her car in the restaurant parking lot, but then left in the other car to go to a movie. Upon returning to the restaurant three hours later there was a tow truck operator getting ready to tow her car, and demanded $114 on the spot to release the car. He had only backed the car from the space.
Was this done proper and legal that he could charge her, and what recourse would he have had if she simply got in her car--since she had the keys obviously--and attempted to drive away? Thanks

Answer
Is it Legal or not ???

Well lets see, she was not a customer of the restaurant for the 3 hours it was left there, correct?

Is that legal or not would be the question.

As to asking for money to let her get the vehicle, well it depends on state laws and since I do not have that key information I can not tell you the answers with any degree of certainties.

But I know of several cases where people have just jumped in the vehicle and drove off either the tow truck or from the location after the tow truck is there or has moved it and they have been arrested for that..

Legal or not, the basic issue is that the tow truck driver was performing a service at the request of the property owner to remove a vehicle which was not a customer of the business.
Just because they might of ate at the restaurant before and then left to go to the movie does not matter, its a vehicle which the property owner is responsible for, and it is also taking up a space for future customers.

Would you go to a place where there is no parking for and then wait to find a space when it becomes open or would you go somewhere else because the first place "looks crowded"