While reading this morning's paper over my coffee, I came upon this gem:
Wilsonville assault victim made to pay tow truck 'drop fee' by Rick Bella, The Oregonian Tuesday December 09, 2008, 8:33 PMFirst, the young woman bolted from her Wilsonville apartment, blood streaming down her face.
Next, she frantically drove across the parking lot, got out of her car and ran into her grandmother's apartment, where she called 9-1-1 and reported that she had just been assaulted by her boyfriend. After providing a statement to a Clackamas County sheriff's deputy, she went outside to find a tow truck preparing to haul away her car.
Not even the deputy could persuade the tow driver to leave the car without making the woman pay a "drop fee."
"I explained to the tow driver that the woman was the victim of domestic violence," said Clackamas County sheriff's Deputy Wes Hall. "I told him there was no place to park, so she left the car with its four-way flashers going, because she was trying to get away. And I told him that she couldn't move the car because I had her keys. But that didn't seem to matter."
Hall estimated that the car was parked unattended "for 10 to 15 minutes."
Charging a drop fee, in effect, victimized the woman twice, he said.
The deputy didn't know how much the woman paid, but Charles White, general operations manager for Retriever Towing, said it could have been up to $160.
White insisted that the driver, who works on commissions, was fully within his rights to tow the car or charge a "drop fee" to leave the vehicle. He said Retriever is under contract to patrol the parking lots at the Berkshire Court Apartments to make sure fire lanes and emergency-access routes remain unobstructed in the 266-unit complex.
"He followed all of the rules," White said, adding that the tow driver couldn't see police activity from where the car was parked.
"The deputy has no right to tell him to drop the car without charging a fee."
According to sheriff's office reports, a 25-year-old woman called police at 8:54 p.m. Monday. "She had a lot of blood on the side of her face," Hall said. "It was obvious that she had been assaulted -- or else she had run headfirst into a two-by-four."
The woman declined to be interviewed.
After questioning, deputies arrested Patrick James Apodaca, 25, on an accusation of fourth-degree assault.
Apodaca, who is on probation for a 2006 federal conviction for conspiracy to possess and distribute oxycodone, was booked into the Clackamas County Jail. He was released Tuesday while county prosecutors review possible charges.
I was, as you might well be, outraged. I ran off an email to the manager of the towing company, Charles White. Much to my suprise, I recieved a reply a few hours later. Here are the emails:
To: chuck@retrievertowing.comSubject: Victimization
Mr. White,
It was with the most absolute sense of disgust I read the story about your most recent towing incident in the Oregonian this morning. You were evidently in full support of towing away the car of an obvious victim of assault (face still bloodied, no doubt terrified and distraught) while she was in the process of being interviewed by a deputy. Congratulations on officially joining the ranks of the most despised. And during the holiday season, no less! Kudos on your crack financial savvy. Not only did you get 'up to' $160 out of that frightened young woman, but just look at all the free advertising you have given your company! Oh, yes. Many, many people that before this morning have never even heard of Retriever Towing will most certainlly hear about it now. I am such a new fan that I will do my best to personally get the word out about your remarkable business ethics.
I understand times are difficult, and are projected to only get worse, but your ilk will always wallow in the gutters of humanity, no matter the economic situation.
I do hope you have a lovely holiday season.
and the reply:
In addressing your last concern about to days article... it was unfortunate that Rick Bella of the "Oregonian" did not report the whole story. He purposely left out the fact that the girl was drunk (could that be part of the cause of the fight) and that this is the third domestic dispute between her drug dealer boyfriend. The lady in question was also very drunk and difficult to deal with. We have a commitment to many apartments complexes to keep fire lanes clear. This allows fire trucks to get thru to where there is a fire. All of us would hate to read about 3 people burning to death because the fire truck could not get past the illegally parked car.
Could we have dropped the car for free? Yes we could have, however dealing with an obvious intoxicated individual who obviously has dealt with domestic abuse several different times with her boyfriend/husband. Our driver, who is a gentleman did not have much sympathy.
Remember, If everyone followed the rules of parking, our service wouldn't be needed.
Respectfully,
Charles White
Manager
I am, if anything, more speechless than before. "...an obvious intoxicated individual who obviously has dealt with domestic abuse several different times..." Really? And Mr. White knows this...how? Keep in mind, Mr. White was not even at the scene at the time this took place.
This woman, beaten so severely she looked as though she had "run head first into a two-by-four" according to the deputy. Of course, a tow truck operator would have obviously been able to spot her acting drunk, right?. I am sick about this. This sort of thing makes my head want to explode. In case anyone would like to let Mr. White in on their thoughts, I have provided his email below.
chuck@retrievertowing.com
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What. A. Douchebag.
First of all, I find it troubling that tow truck drivers work on commission. That sounds like it's asking for problems. Second, WTF?!
I really want to e-mail this asshat, but I'm too angry to respond coherently, and I don't think three paragraphs of cursing would do much good.
I wonder how much of his business is from roadside assistance? I hope it's the majority, because that's the part that will go to hell when word of this spreads. If he can't wrap his brain around being good for goodness' sake, maybe he will understand losing his business over it.
On the other hand, if he gets most of his revenue from jacking illegally parked cars, he has no incentive to be the least bit humanitarian.
What a creep.
Ah, victim-blaming, how we missed thee. Not really, but anyway.
Once more with feeling: just because the woman was drunk, does not make violence against her her fault. And that's assuming she *was* drunk, which is predicated on, what? The word of this for-commission tow truck driver? He couldn't possibly be biased in his reporting of the situation, of course. Furthermore, just because this was not the first instance of domestic violence does not make her less worthy of help and/or sympathy. She was beaten and bloody, running away from a man who had assaulted her, and you couldn't find it in the goodness of your rotten, pitted heart to put her car down? It was parked because she was on the phone with 911. A couple minutes later and she would likely have been moving it. Seriously, what part of a person's empathy has to be corroded away to charge a still-bleeding assault victim, drunk or not, for the pleasure of NOT towing her car? Sounds like bribery to me. "I've got your car, now what are you going to offer me to put it down and give it back to you?"
Ugh. This is disgusting. I will be emailing this douchenozzle about the situation. Let's see how much crappy publicity we can stir up for this shitstain's company.
Upon further research, it comes out that this towing company is what's known as a "Predatory Patrol Towing" company. Their entire business is to have independent drivers, paid solely on commission, go patrol apartment-building parking lots - particularly low-income ones - and tow cars that are parked "illegally". However, their definition of "illegal" parking is quite flexible, including several reported instances of vehicles being basically stolen off of private property and impounded. They have a horrible customer-service record, with complaints from people who were charged exorbitant "anger fees" if they argued with the driver, or being told to come pick up their car at 8:30 am but nobody meeting them at the lot until 11, at which point the person was charged for an extra day's impound fees because it was after 9 am.
Oregon's predatory towing companies became such a problem, in fact, that recently laws have been passed that should cut down on what these companies can get away with.
On Retriever Towing's webpage, they have the following statement: "Dear Concerned Citizens; We understand that people embroiled in a domestic violent situation needs our sympathy. We deeply regret that this situation ever happened. We have refunded the entire drop fee, and have made a generous donation or $500 to the Raphel House of Portland."
There's also been an instance of an elderly disabled woman whose handicapped parking placard was not clearly visible, and they impounded her car and tried to charge her like $300 for it until the news got ahold of it and gave them horrible publicity, just like this case.
Honestly, fuck these people. How do they sleep at night?
I may never be able to laugh at the song "Lincoln Park Pirates" again.
Damn, if you hadn't mentioned that song, I was gonna! But yeah, seriously. WTF is wrong with those people?
Ack, the victim blaming.
"the girl was drunk (could that be part of the cause of the fight)"
Yeah, she probably started the fight, too, you know. In which case she deserves to get her car towed for getting herself beaten up. /sarcasm
ARGH!