Towing Issues: Illegal Towing?, code enforcement officer, tag fees

Question
Indianapolis, IN
My car was at my mothers house in the driveway which is in a fenced area, and there was two cars in front of it. They came to tow in my mothers car because it didnt have updated plates. The paper work said they were towing in cars that didn't run and not updated tags that was in her name. When they came to tow it in, they towed in her car, my fathers car with updated plates on it, and my car. Is this possable? What exactly can I do about it?

Answer
Well this type of issue is becoming more common in many areas...
The unlicensed vehicles tend to be "eyesores" as they are usually not running, wrecked or in the process of being either scrapped or rebuilt.  Many Cities are trying to keep things clean and looking good in their Cities...

Now another issue which could be a factor in the reason for towing your "mothers car" is that it does not have current plates and as such does not pay "taxes or tag fees" ( think revenue in renewals to the city )

Now as to towing the other vehicles in the way, that seems very strange to me... But most of the time the orders to tow come from either an law enforcement officer or a city code enforcement officer and are court ordered.. Depending on the wording of the orders then the other vehicles might of been legal to tow.  But then it might of been illegal to tow the other vehicles..
Only a court can decide if all the tows were legal or not... I was not there and do not see the papers so I can not determine that answer for you..
Best advise is to check with a lawyer as this sounds to me like an "code enforcement tow" and as such has some very specific language in it... The lawyer might be better to answer the "legal or not" issue for you.


Hope this helps you with the issue, but as a personal note I have been on several of these kind of tows and they are what I consider a bad reason to tow vehicles...