Towing Issues: shopping mall towing, dmv web, dmv ca

Question
i work at the Irvine spectrum mall in California. i parked my car there at around 10:00am to go into work. when i walked in they told me i didn't have to work, so thus i went to the gym and to get some grub. At 1:00pm i headed out to my car to see that is was towed. i went to the security office to have them rudely say that employees can not park there. 200 bones later i have my car saying they towed me at 9:55 am. what can i do to have them to reimburse my fees. also, i must add there where no signs of any sort saying employees must not park there, all they gave me to show their reasoning was a memo given out.

Answer
Well, as much as I hate to say it, shopping centers and parking there are the biggest problems I have answering questions about...

First of all the shopping centers are so big and have so many entrances that it becomes a major task to post signs regarding parking regulations...  
Second in the cases of parking garage style lots, it gets even worse with the different levels and such...

Now we all know that shopping malls want the customers to be able to get into the mall and spend money and as such usually reserve the closest spaces for customers... That leaves employees parking out at the ends of the rows and in the furthest spaces (security nightmare at night walking to your vehicles?)

Now at the entrances there are usually some signs with state hours of the mall and that parking is restricted.. It will not usually be a "STATE COMPLIANT SIGN" as they make them.  

That being said, I know that California has many specific laws regarding towing rules and regulations and it gets even worse with specific City regulations...
California DMV code 22658 is one which does deal with signs in part of this problem.. Here is a link to the DMV web site and then go to the T section for towing.

http://www.dmv.ca.gov/pubs/vctop/vc/tocd11c10a1.htm


Now the "paper memo" is one that is usually given out to the stores every so often to remind people about parking rules... But it like anything sometimes does not get posted or passed around. That could be your "employers" fault you did not see it.


One question I always have about this issue is what if you work at the mall and they have stickers saying it is an employee vehicle... Day off and you want to go shopping...
Do you have to still park in the employee spaces even though you are a customer ???


Now I would check with security and see exactly how they knew it was an employee vehicle, and to also see where you are "SUPPOSED TO PARK"   make them spell it out in writing if you have to..

Check all the entrances to the mall for any kind of signs and through out the mall for signs regarding towing...

Do an Internet search for laws specific to your City as I have a hard time finding specific information on City levels as complex names do sometimes not mean anything to me and as such I do not get the correct information at times..

Document all you find, and you might find that a law was broken or 2...  Then present the facts to your work, the mall management and if neither of then do anything then you can always go the Small Claims Court route.


I hope this helps you a bit, but its hard to really answer this kind of question as it gets into a few gray areas..