Towing Issues: towing legality, california state laws, san diego union tribune

Question
Jason,
        I was parked at a private residence where my son lives twenty feet from his door step.I went in.Used the facilities. Got a drink of water.When I came out my vehicle was gone.No more than 8 or 10 minutes had passed. My vehicle had been towed. The tow truck driver had to have a coded gate access to get into this private condo property. Reading an article from the San Diego Union Tribune by a Anglica Martinez, I read a paragraph that states by law, tow truck companies have to be called to private property by an owner or manager who is complaining about a parking violation. Pr-authorized access is not allowed. Is this true? If so how do I find this code to take to court?
                        Thanks, Rob  

Answer
Sorry about the delay, because I found this in the unanswered question pool... So here I go trying to help answer this and clean up the question pool.

California state laws  (check out Calif DMV code 22658) for information (also the laws changed January 1 2007) regulate towing from private property.  pre-authorized forms were in use for a long time. But that has changed with the new laws..

I would suggest that you research the rules which were in effect at the time and see if they were following the rules.. Now San Diego also has some rules of their own in addition to the state rules..

Gate access is not a problem usually for towing companies, and one thing that could of happened is that the towing company was called in for one vehicle and it left before the tow truck got there. Sometimes in large complexes the management will find another violator and have that one towed... But it might of just been patrol towing at its best or worse...

Hopefully you got this problem resolved, and sorry for the delay again ...