A California towing company has been suspended after accusations of illegally towing cars in a scheme that made its owners millions of dollars, officials say.
It was primarily non-English speakers who were victims of Auto Towing’s tricks, according to a Feb 6 news release from the San Francisco city attorney’s office.
Most of the victims were Spanish- and Cantonese-speaking people who were “especially vulnerable to predatory tows,” officials said.
City Attorney David Chiu suspended Auto Towing for multiple unscrupulous behaviors, including towing parked cars illegally from a private lot, limiting the hours in which people could get their vehicles and insisting car owners pay only in cash.
Under the California Vehicle Code, vehicle owners have the right to retrieve their vehicles 24 hours a day and can pay with cash or credit card.
“Auto Towing intentionally misled and scammed people out of hundreds of dollars by illegally towing cars and making them hard to retrieve,” Chiu said.