By:Chris Munzing
If the store you walked out of, however, was near 20 W. Park Ave., chances are your car was towed.
People using the private parking lot behind 20 W. Park Ave., as well as the Burger King lot on West Park Avenue, are finding that, unless those are the businesses they're frequenting, their cars are getting towed.
Margaret Newman of Long Beach said that her car was towed when she parked in the private lot for just a few minutes to run into a nearby liquor store. When she came out, her car was gone and another car was being hooked up by a tow truck from Tows Are Us, an Island Park-based company whose clients include Burger King and 20 W. Park Ave.
The Long Beach police said the matter was under investigation, and would not comment.
While Newman admits that she parked illegally, she said she didn't appreciate the tow truck driver's attitude. She also said that she felt the way the company is going about its work is hurting local businesses. "It's the lurking, it's the stalking," she said. "These guys don't wait any amount of time to tow your car. It's unreasonable. It's going to make people not want to shop over there."
"There's a right way and a wrong way to do business," said Nelson Vinokur, a Long Beach attorney and a friend of Newman's. "You have to charge people reasonably and treat people accordingly."
Newman said that she was charged $135 to get her car back, after the tow truck simply dropped it off a few blocks away, and she could only pay in cash. When she asked for a receipt, she said she was treated rudely and handed a receipt with no invoice number.
Newman said she encountered another motorist who had run into a convenience store for a pack of cigarettes and returned to find her car blocked by a tow truck. "They didn't even have her hooked up, but they were blocking her while they got somebody else's car," Newman said. "Then they hooked her car up with the other car and told her it would cost her $75 just to drop it. They didn't even have the hook on when she got there. The woman was in tears. She had been in the store less than a minute."
The owner of Tows Are Us, who identified himself only as Trevis, said that his company was doing its job completely on the level and in accordance with the laws of the City of Long Beach. "We are licensed with the city," he said. "When we tow a car, we tow them to the [Long Beach] police department, and then we bring them to our lot in Island Park. This is all legal. The police check the plate numbers and log them."
Newman, however, said that when she went to the police station to try and claim her car, she was told that it wasn't there. "The towing company is just towing cars one after another off the street," she said. "They're not even taking them to the police station. They're pocketing the cash from people and not following the rules."
Trevis said it was possible for someone to get to the police station before his or her car gets there, but Vinokur said that was impossible. "How long does it take to drive from Burger King to the police station?" he said. "Two minutes? How long does it take to walk there? There's no way you're going to beat them to the police station."
Newman and Vinokur brought up their concerns at a recent City Council meeting. Council President Jim Hennessy sent them a letter saying that, based on their complaints, the police were conducting an investigation, but would not comment.
Trevis said that his company tries to be as friendly to people as possible, noting that drivers will give illegal parkers a few minutes to return to their cars before they're towed. "I go inside places and ask whose cars actually belong there," he said. "I even check the bathrooms to make sure, because people say they were in the bathroom all the time."
He admitted that his job makes him no friends on the street, but he insists that it is a job that has to be done. "When people are using your parking lot and not using your business, the only choice these businesses have is to call a towing company."
Comments about this story? DMiller@liherald.com or (516) 569-4000 ext. 213.
