Posted on 11/06/2015 8:17:12 PM PST by Cowman
Joel Ramer and his girlfriend got stuck off-roading this old Jeep Cherokee on a powerline road in Walpole, Massachusetts last week. Seems egregious that he was arrested for trespassing and disturbing the peace, but the $48,000 recovery charge is downright offensive.
It’s unclear whether Ramer got slapped with a trespassing charge after calling for help, or if somebody spotted and busted him while he was screwing around in the mud. And yeah, you can be jailed for that in Massachusetts.
But after Walpole PD rolled up on him Fox25 says the cops called what is presumably their go-to recovery outfit, Assured Collision, to pull the mired vehicle out. After spending twelve hours on the job, Assured Collision lugged the Jeep XJ to their facility. Ramer went to collect it and was given a bill for $48,000 instead.
How the person behind their desk told him that with a straight face we’ll never know, but Fox detailed what Ramer was being charged for:
“Assured Collision billed him $16,000 for an on-scene supervisor at $1,250 an hour. He is being charged more than $10,000 for an off-road recovery incident response unit. There is also a $5,000 fee for dangerous condition liability insurance. All the equipment and manpower totaled $48,835 for the 12 hour job.â€
There was also talk of “hazardous material†conditions and proximity to powerlines adding to the danger of the scene.
Before we start tearing into the ridiculousness of all that I can tell you Massachusetts’ Statewide Towing Association has already responded to the Fox report; “some of the line items in the bill exceed industry standards and some of those line items they’d never even heard of.â€
“Some of the items†They say? Everything about Mr. Ramer’s situation seems excessive.
I could see it taking two drunk teenagers 12 hours to get a Jeep XJ out of a bog, but a professional recovery crew? Maybe if you count the time they must have spent going out to buy a new truck they effectively billed Ramer for.
Ten grand for an “off-road recovery incident response unit?†You could buy another Jeep about ten times nicer than the one we’re seing here for that.
But this “dangerous conditions liability†line might be the most ridiculous. Proximity to powerlines does not make conditions dangerous. You’re in proximity to powerlines every time you go on the sidewalk.
Yes, operating aerial ladders and cranes near such lines could collide with a line and cause a problem. Nothing like that would have been needed to yank this old Jeep out of a mud pit.
Though now that I think about it, maybe they really did spend $10,000 on a “recovery unit†and rented a skyscraper-building crane for the task. But that would not have made a whole lot of sense, when a Jeep like this only weighs about 3,000 pounds and could probably have been pulled out with a John Deere tractor and a little determination.
The new highwaymen know how to rob you. If you don’t like it, they could always kill you.
Was the cattle ranch with the trails actual privately owned property? Or a grazing lease on BLM or Forest land?
Seems odd people to go on a private ranch to ride a private trail.
Let me guess, you have to pay cash and exact change to get it back.
I’ve seen cozy tow yards that refuse to make change (for $90 from $100) and then charge $10 when you need to borrow their jumper cables to jump a car that lost the battery because the interior light was left on overnight (and no that OLD $10 can’t be applied to the new charge).
A bunch of crooks.
Some of you all may know I was Senior ed back in the glory years of Off-Road.com. WE used to hear stories like this semi often.
First, the guy was an idiot for trespassing. With that said, Everyone here talking about kickbacks and such are right. But there is one more thing.
This guy was made an example of because Off-Road vehicles are near the top of every liberal pols hit list. When you shut down an area pf public land, you start with Off-Roaders and get the bike/horse/hikers on board to help.
Like fools, they do. then the pol says “horses are bad!” Then “Bikes are bad!” I watched it countless times.
Oh and then the Sierra Club builds a ‘retreat’ on closed land. For ‘educational purposes. Of their high level members of course.
In this case, it’s private land, but the impact of a near 50K bill makes people consider new hobbies. Less off-roaders = easier land closure. Hello Agenda 21/Wildlands Project.
The guy was a poster boy for them.
Back in the 70s a friend of mine owned a coon dog that got hit by a car. My friend picked the dog up and placed it in the trunk of his car and drove it to the vet. The vet came out and examined the dog and said “This dog is dead.”
My friend took the dog home and gave it a decent burial (We did things like that back then.) A week or so later he got a bill from the vet for $100. I told him “You paid a vet a hundred bucks to tell you your dog was dead. I’d have told you that for ten bucks.”
As a very stupid teenage girl (1980’s) I got my father’s Chevy Impala stuck about a mile off road in a place that we used to have parties at. There was literally a stream running under the car and I had driven it down a steep embankment and there was no way I was going to be going up the other side. After about an hour I knew I would have to walk out the mile to a friends house and call my father. I knew my dad was going to flip! He showed up with his Chevy Truck and I remember my heart beating so hard. We came up to the top of the hill and he looked over the side, where I had driven, and said “what in the world did you do? how did you even get down there?†We went to the owner of the properties house and I had to explain what I had done. The guy laughed. My dad called some type of towing service, but they couldn’t bring a normal tow truck because it was in the woods, one lane, and they somehow determined they would have to go down the hill and tow it up the other side. After doing this they realized getting out the other side was worse than the way I came in! But at least on the other side there was a turn around, but it meant my dad had to steer the car as the guy dragged it back through the stream and up the hill! I just stood there in shocked embarrassment. After they got up the other side, my dad said to follow him (driving the car) until we got to the paved road and he could check the car out. Miraculously the car seemed ok but chunks of mud and grass were stuck to the underside. All my father said was “go wash the carâ€â€” which took forever! I had a friend with me that needed driving home who kept reminding me how much trouble I was in! Later as my dad was yelling at me (but not that much, I think he some how found it amusing) he said that the towing guy and the land owner refused any payment. This shocked me because I knew the cost would fall on me. But my dad was a volunteer firefighter /paramedic and very active in the community and they said they were returning the favor. Ahh small town life!
It was privately owned
The riders were following a creek bed that crossed into the ranch.
For sure.
It did not look that stuck.
Back end was not even down to the diff.
Patrol Cops get fired or jail time for calling a tow driver pal to the scene of accidents. ...But I guess its okay if the Mayor and Chief do it and get their cut.
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Twenty years ago, I was pulled over in my city about two miles from my house. It was a Sunday night and I’d had dinner (and 2 beers) with several friends in a different city and was driving an unfamiliar road home. ....I came upon a major highway construction project with many signs and stopped to figure out which way to go. Someone just blew by me and called the cops to tell them I was a drunk driver.
I finally found my way through the maze of barricades and got onto the entry ramp to the freeway near my home. I’d only gone about 1/2 mile before SIX patrol cars pulled me over. .....I spent the night in jail and found out the next morning where I could get my impounded car.
The car was located about 45 miles away! It cost me about $300 to get my car out of impound, though it had only been there about 12 hours.
The police/cities are definitely on the take from the towing companies!
It is Mass...filled with Massholes.
Corruption R Us!
Looks to be a mid 90s Jeep Cherokee. I'd say $2000-$4000 or so.
Loved those old inline 6-cylinders they used to put in them. Great engines.
“Walpole”
He should have curtailed his Walpoling activities, sallied forth and infiltrated a place of purveyance to negotiate the vending of some cheesy comestibles.
I finally escaped Red Hampshire this past week...I couldn’t shake the heebie-jeebies until I crossed into Pennsylvania. Soviet New York had the most “NO” signs, with Mass running a close second. One bright spot...got out of the soviet northeast without paying one single toll anywhere.
Few in SF would ever believe your story; they like their “DiFi” but don’t know why.
My brother, father in law and I got an old CJ5 stuck in 2 feet of muck when we hit a submerged tree stump. We were in the Florida swamps one night.
Sure it took us a few hours, but with a come-a-long and some rope, we pulled it about 200 ft. to some drier ground.
If you’re going to own a Jeep and actually use it, you should know how to get yourself unstuck, not call a tow truck.
That said, the tow company should lose their license.
That would be ridiculous even if it were a new jeep.
Police Chief, turns out the owner of the tow company was related to the Police Chief.
Several years ago Victoria had a contract with a specific towing company (now defunct). There were literally hundreds of complaints about this company’s drivers maliciously damaging cars and towing even when legally parked. Scores of letters to council, to the newspaper, reports in the newspaper were all discounted.
City council ignored or poo-poo’d the complaints, saying it was sour grapes.
Well, they did until the mayor’s wife’s car was towed from the mayor’s reserved spot in front of city hall and damaged by these same goons. They broke BOTH side mirrors and a taillight on a brand new Mercedes in the 9 blocks to their compound.
Funny how that is. Until one of the elite is actually affected by something, nothing happens...
Exactly! I got my two-wheel drive truck stuck up to the hubs on all four wheels in desert sand, which means the entire drive line and the oil pan were dragging along with both axles buried, and I got that out with a shovel and some scraggly branches.
It took about six hours and I had to spend the night, had the rear bumper up against a rock mountain at one point, but I drove it out.
How do you get a jeep stuck? If he doesn’t have a tow/winch to get himself out, why is he going offroading in places he can get stuck? With no friends with him?
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