Towing Issues: Car reported stolen and turned out to be towed, tow truck driver, registered mail

Question
Okay, Los Angeles, CA...

We reported a car stolen the first week of April.  The police checked their impound and didn't have it... now today, my parents in TX get a notice that says the car was towed for having expired registration on out of state plates.  It's been in a private lot for nearly three months and this is the first notification that's been made.  The lot says that over $2000 worth of storage fees are in order.

What obligation do the towing companies have to let people know that the cars have been towed?  Or the police?  Shouldn't we have found out about this sooner?  I'd filed with the insurance company and everything and I've been inconvenienced for three full months, getting rides and asking favors, calling cabs and canceling plans all because I thought I didn't have a car.

Answer
Well this sounds kind of funny to me, but it highlights some of the issues when dealing with vehicles towed...

Police departments in many areas require that vehicles which are towed from parking lots are to be called into the police departments so that they are "not reported stolen" when in fact that they are towed...

And herein lies some of the problems... First of all most of the police departments do not require "WRITTEN CONFORMATION" of the information that the vehicle has been towed.

Now this is important as when talking on the phone its hard at times to get "correct information across"  Numbers and letters get mixed up. Add in the fact that even the tow truck driver might of read part of the license plate or the VIN (vehicle identification number which is a combination of 17 letters and numbers) wrong..

So you can have mistakes made on several levels here.  Now from what I also see, it is out of state registered and that adds more issues to the problem.

Yes the tow company is "supposed to notify" the vehicle owners via "certified - registered" mail that the vehicle has been towed, and there are some limitations to do so... Generally it is within either 72 hours or 10 days (generalizing here)

BUT one of the big problems which tow companies run into are laws to "protect the privacy of the motorist" (think stalkers here) and as such requests to gain vehicle owner information is either very slow to get or even restricted to where the police have to provide it to the tow company.

Add in the fact that it might also be affected by the fact it was registered out of state. Then you are dealing with the US Post Office.
If the tow company in California did follow the law and sent the request to Texas for the vehicle owner information then it has (for examples here) the 10 days in California before they would be "REQUIRED TO SEND THE LETTER" but if the post office took 4 days to get the letter to Texas and then Texas DMV took and misplaced the request they could have a bigger wait time for the information. Of course then the letter with the information would be mailed back and then to tow company would have to do letters to send to you the owner...

I am not defending the tow company here, I am just trying to point out some of the problems which we have dealing with notifications.

Now as to the whole stolen car issue, I am assuming that you did not have full coverage as you did not mention that your insurance paid off on the claim... Now if they did pay off the claim then the vehicle becomes theirs as they "bought the vehicle when they paid the claim"



Ok on to other parts of this, where was the vehicle ORIGINALLY parked to start with when it was reported stolen.  If it was in a parking lot then there are the above mentioned notifications for tow away signs and authorizations to be signed before the vehicle was towed.
If it was parked on the street then the police should of had records of it being towed under their orders.

And of course there are always the chances it was actually stolen from one place and parked in another place by the criminals and then towed away.


This whole issue can get very complicated fast, and while I try to help people it at times has so many things which affect the answers and such...

But best advise is to talk to the tow company and get copies of all the records involved. Find out where it was towed from, when and the time also... Match this with the police report on the stolen report and see if they match or not.   And of course talk to your insurance company as they have lots of experience dealing with these kind of issues, and also have lots of lawyers or agents to deal with it...

Good luck and I hope it works out.