Towing Issues: no registration renewal notice leads to tow, beverly hills police department, dmv services

Question
I parked my car, a mercedes, at a parking meter on a public street in Beverly
Hills yesterday and since I have a handicap palcard I didn't pay the meter (as
is legal with the placard). I returned to my car about three hours later but it
wasn't there! I thought it might have been illegaly towed (due to some meter
maid that didn't know the rules about handicap parking) or even worse,
stolen! I called the Beverly Hills police department and was informed that my
car had been impounded for expired registration. A complete shock to me. I
was told that the registartion expired in April and it is now November and the
law allows for a car to be towed if its registration has been expired for more
than 5 months. I don't remember renewing my registration so I figure they
must be right unless someone has ripped my tags off my car. The problem is
that my car was towed on a Friday afternoon. I didn't find out about it until
4:45 p.m. I was told I would have to go to the DMV to renew the registration,
then the police station to provide proof of registration before going to the
impound lot to get my car back. I'm a member of auto club, so I called to see
if they could help me, but the only thing they could do was offer their DMV
services instead of me having to go to the DMV. By the time I would have
taken a cab to the closest Auto Club they would have been closed (they
closed at 5:00 on Friday) and the Impound lot closed at 7:00 p.m. and didn't
open again until Monday. Now my car is sitting for the weekend in the
impound lot and I am going to have to pay for each day it is there plus the
cost of transportation to go to all the places I have to go to get the required
documentation to get my car back, plus the cost to renew my registration.
The thing I'm most upset about is that I believe the fault lies not with me but
with the DMV. I filed a change of address form along with my registration
tags the last time I paid them. I have another car, a truck, in which I did the
same thing and to my dismay I recently received a notice to my old address
citing non payment of registration and a penalty fee. I believe that both
change of address forms went unnoticed and that any documents the DMV
were sending me were being sent to my old address so that I never recieved
them, therefore I had no idea my registration had been expired. Now I'm
having to pay for the DMV's screw up. Is there anything you suggest I do to
get my car on Monday without having to pay the towing fees?  

Answer
You put in a change of address at the Post Office when you moved, right? How did you get the notice about your truck? Sounds like it went to your old address and was forwarded to you. That only takes between 3 and 14 days to be forwarded and the DMV sends out their notices 6 weeks in advance. I know because I just got my notice yesterday for a payment due on January 6, 2007. You say you notified the DMV of your new address? Then why didn't they mail the NEW registration to your New address is the $64,000 question. The only suggestion I can make is to go to the DMV office in person on Monday and ask to speak to a Supervisor and see if they will waive the penalties for late registration. The towing company was only doing what a Police or Parking Officer instructed them to do so you are responsible for all towing and storage. If I am not mistaken the towing company will not even release the vehicle to you until you show them proof of current registration. Illegal to drive without it.