QuestionQUESTION: I've heard it is illegal to tow a car while a person is still inside the vehicle. If so, what is to prevent someone from parking in a 'no-parking' zone on private property (e.g. business, apartment complex), leaving someone in the vehicle, then coming back to get the car, then leave? If a tow truck comes, it cannot tow the vehicle because someone is inside. So it looks like they would get away with it.
ANSWER: Gary, my first thoughts about this question is that it is a "rude, non serious" question to answer...
But I can see that you want to beat the system here and as such are willing to risk the safety of another person just to park illegally...
First of all, there are cars towed with people inside them from time to time, mostly they are kids or infants who are small and asleep in the vehicle... Sure the tow company gets in trouble and gets bad press, but the vehicle owner does get in trouble for child endangerment also...
Now if you leave a adult friend in the vehicle and park for 2 or 3 hours, what are they going to be doing during that time. I hope they never get out of the vehicle to get a drink or have to answer the call of nature. And what if the tow company comes up and does hook up the vehicle and the person gets out of the vehicle while it is moving or raised in the air.. That can cause injuries also....
Plus I have heard of people being in illegally parked vehicles being asked to get out of the vehicle by local law enforcement agencies in order to have illegally parked vehicles removed from a trespassing situation
But in a serious note, why are you wanting to park illegally and not park legally in the first place... If you were parked legally then you would not have to worry about this issue at all...
---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------
QUESTION: Thanks for the information, but I don't think it was a non-serious question considering the fact that it is probably illegal for a car to be towed with a person still inside, and I can't imagine anyone knowingly doing that (they should check first, even if some irresponsible adult leaves a kid in the car!!!). Anyway, I should have been more specific. Let's say that I wanted to go into a business at a strip mall, for just 1 or 2 minutes, and there weren't any 'legal' parking spaces in front of the business (and you can't park in the street, etc.), so I park at a neighboring business while my wife is in the car. In 1 or 2 minutes we're gone; no harm done. And if a tow truck happens to come by during that time, I can't imagine they would tow the car; that would be kidnapping. Sure, technically this would be illegal parking, but even the police probably wouldn't take that very seriously. I wouldn't call the police if someone pulled into my driveway to turn around, or if someone walked across my front lawn. I can see if we were to park there for hours or days; but for 1 minute?
AnswerThanks for the follow up, see what the "CORRECT INFORMATION" can do with questions...
Believe it or not, people do park illegally for hours sometimes and sometimes they get towed in 1 minute... First of all it depends on the location and it depends on if the tow truck is there...
But still, what you are asking is if its still illegal to break the rules and regulations by parking illegally.
Heck as I can not say yes you can park there, or not park it comes down to you making that choice and taking the risks...
Now as to leaving someone in the vehicle, I hate to say it but that might work, but they can still hook up the vehicle and leave it there attached... What would you do if they picked up the vehicle and then locked the tow truck up and went somewhere to eat for an hour...
We can "what if" all day, but it is not going to help...
You can do what you want to do and that is all I can see.
