ESPN's Britt McHenry is Not Nice....

In the area where I live, they had to pass a law to curb these practices. The towing companies knew what the decals for private parking in business and residential lots looked like, and towed cars without being called. The law now states that the person assigned to the parking space, the resident or someone associated with the business that owns the lot must call a towing company before they're allowed to come out and tow a car.

 

I'm not referring to civil court. I'm referring to criminal court. As in, you would have the tower arrested for stealing your car from a legal spot.

The cop comes out, takes your report. You tell him right where your car was parked, and have the cop note in the report that it's a legal spot. You take pics of your empty spot, and of the rest of the lot. That's your evidence.

Like you said, it's your word against the tower's. But if there was an arrest report made, that's bad publicity. They might have to pay for a lawyer. They would have to weigh the cost of paying for a lawyer and the bad publicity versus letting your car go for free.

 

Or when Mike Tirico used to approach the new interns.

 

Yeah, this company was violating a similar law, in which the tow company must be notified by the landowner in writing of the violation. However, since 99 percent of the people the company was towing had no idea about this (myself included), they usually just forked over the cash.

 

I actually did call the police, who told me the company had towed it (they report all tows to the police). It didn't really occur to me to report it stolen in the manner you suggest, but it wouldn't have mattered.

Anyway, the process has become that anyone who is illegally towed has to pay the money to get the vehicle out of impound and then sue in small claims court to recover the fee. According to local newspaper reports, the company has gone to small claims many times over the years and lost most of their cases, but so few people bothered or knew that they could, that it was worth the cost to this company. I probably would have lost had I taken them to court since I had no proof of where my vehicle was parked.

This company pretty much thrives on the predatory towing from a specific area and relying on state calls, not from a good reputation. As all this was coming out in the local paper, I remarked to a friend on Facebook that you never see this company helping stranded drivers or providing roadside assistance, unlike the other two big towing companies in the area. Now that all this is public and they're not on the state roster anymore, they won't last long.

 

Exactly. Never thought I'd sympathize with towing people, but this wench made it happen. Good god does McHenry ever come across as a vile hateful bitch here.

I thought the tow lady was rather admirably restrained and reasonable under the circumstances, even giving her prior warning that she was being videotaped. And, for all McHenry's bluster about her superior education and intelligence, how fucking stupid must someone with her job be to ignore that warning and reveal her true colors to the camera anyways?

 

Ow-itch. Cold, but true.

This is the network that suspended Tirico but allowed him to keep his job, and then they fired two PA's for making one remark about a woman.

 

Disney isn't firing her over this.

 

I once had my car repossessed on accident. Took a number of days and about 50 phone calls to get it back -- and I still had to pay impound fees. So you got your car towed. BFD.

 

I agree I don't think she's getting fired over this.

 

One week suspension...

 

She'll get to reflect on how the world screwed her over.