Watch tow truck driver hitting obstacles in a downtown lot

TowNews · January 20, 2023

Tow truck hits parked vehicle, flees: Time to stop ‘unholy, terrible’ company, El Barrio owner says

A recently released video shows a tow truck driver for Parking Enforcement Systems hitting a parked truck with a vehicle he was towing, then leaving the scene.

“They are an unholy, terrible company that I wish would not tow anymore,” said Neville Baay, owner of El Barrio. “They will tow people who are not necessarily there illegally and then the way they see it is ‘Well we towed your car; you have to come pay us to get it.’”

The incident is the latest in a long and continuing series of negative reports about the conduct of Parking Enforcement, a company that has contracts to remove vehicles from many lots downtown when illegally parked or in the lot past the time the driver paid for.

Baay described Parking Enforcement Systems as “aggressive and predatory” reflecting not only the numerous complaints about the company on social media sites like Yelp, Nextdoor and Facebook, but what residents have told reporters as well.

The incident captured on video on the afternoon of January 17 involved a tow truck driver trying to remove a pickup truck hitched to a UHAUL trailer from a tight parking lot. Anna Vanderbleek and her husband Jared watched it, recorded it on a cell phone and carried on a running commentary as it unfolded. Then they reached out to The Lede.