Jose Vicente Badillo is facing up to 20 years in prison on charges that he plotted to set his competitors’ tow trucks on fire, fraudulently applied for and collected over $150,000 in welfare benefits with his wife, Abigail Fuentes, and illegally towed vehicles across San Francisco and other cities.
The couple’s methods purportedly included placing fake “no parking” signs on private lots and towing every vehicle on them, targeting areas populated by largely Spanish and Cantonese speakers, and — in one case — trying to tow a car in downtown San Francisco that had stopped at an intersection, with the driver still inside. This last one was caught on video.
But, despite facing federal charges on five different counts, that allegedly hasn’t stopped Badillo and Fuentes from towing cars…