Tow411>Midwest States>Nebraska * North Dakota * South Dakota> Towing incident turns violent for tow truck driver (Neb)

[TowForce]

Originally Created on May 29, 2014:

 

OMAHA, Neb. —A tow truck driver said he was assaulted by the owner of a vehicle that he said was parked illegally.

he driver of the tow truck said a black Impala was parked in a “no parking” zone at an apartment complex near 108th and Fort streets Tuesday night.The owner of the Impala saw the vehicle loaded on the tow truck and decided to follow the driver in a vehicle behind him. By the time the driver reached 63rd and Grover streets, the incident turned violent.

"He called him names, told him, 'No, you can't take it. It's my vehicle.' He started to push my driver, started to threaten my driver," said Kim Hobscheidt, Auto 1 Towing account manager.

“I told him to get away from my truck. Then he kind of came at me and pushed me against the truck and grabbed the controls on my truck. Then he tried to jump in my truck with it running, so I grabbed the keys. Then he jumped in the truck and shut the door,” said Paul Murphy, assaulted tow truck driver. 

When police intervened, Murphy said the man expressed himself with vulgar vocabulary and walked away. Murphy drove away and brought the car to Auto 1 Towing. 

"Within three minutes of me pulling up and stopping, the guy and his buddy pulled up in an SUV. He jumped out of the car and started taking it off my truck again. I wasn't going to go up to him again. It wasn't worth it," Murphy said. 

The owner of the Impala even tried to jump in the cab and release the car. Eventually, the man tried to drive the car off with part of it still suspended in the air.

“You got to remember, it’s up on dollies as well as up in the air by my boom. He got in with the keys and drove it off my tow truck,” Hobscheidt said.

Murphy said he was a little shaken up, but he is OK.

"I usually have a run-in with an angry car owner once or twice a week but usually can talk them out of it,” Murphy said. “I get people screaming at me all the time, but they've never come at me, never touched anything. They realize that not a great idea. I never had anybody go that far.”

Omaha police can't confirm if they've arrested anyone in connection with the assault.

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