Posted on 11/17/2023 3:49:15 PM PST by george76
MEMPHIS, Tenn. — A truck driver who came to Memphis to recover a tractor-trailer stolen from the Chicago area stayed inside the big rig for nearly 34 hours to prevent A1’s Towing and Hauling from taking it.
The owner of MHT Group Inc. said his driver gassed up at the Shelby Express on East Shelby Drive, pulled into a spot, and was in the process of paying for parking through his dispatch when A1’s booted and blocked in the vehicle.
“We got a receipt. We called the gas station. We showed the receipt. We called the towing company, and they said ‘Oh, we booted you ten minutes before you had this receipt,'” said the owner of MHT who did not want to be identified.
He said his company offered to pay A1’s $7,500 to drop the truck, but they were told it wasn’t even close to what it would cost to get the truck back. He said police were called to the lot at least six times but told them they couldn’t interfere because the tow company had sued them.
They were honking their horns and using the boom of the tow truck to shake the truck, so we called out the police. The driver wanted to file a harassment charge against them, and the police said that wasn’t enough to file a harassment charge,” the MHT owner said. “Our legal team told us because we were recovering a stolen vehicle, they cannot hold it.”
An attorney for A1’s claims the driver never paid for parking and said that is why the vehicle was being towed away.
“I am not there, but the truck driver assaulted one of my client’s employees, told the police department he was ‘not going to pay anything,’ and then stated that, ‘My company told me to just sit in my truck and see what happens.’ This was all captured on video,” said A1’s attorney Darrell O’neal.
MHT Group Inc. said it was able to get its truck back after Tennessee troopers showed up.
“We told them it’s a stolen unit, and they said that’s enough,” said the MHT owner.
They said the troopers told A1’s to unhook the 18-wheeler and remove the boot.
“Their lawyer showed up and started talking about laws, but state police shut him down and told him this is how the law works,” said the MHT owner. “Then they started telling us they lost the key to the boot and can’t do anything tonight, so state police gave my guys the authority to cut the boot off.”
This all happened at the same truck stop where a Church Transportation driver locked herself inside a big rig for several hours three weeks ago to avoid being towed.
...
Shirley Holland admitted she didn’t pay the $13 fee to park but said when she tried to pay a $275 booting fee, she was told it was too late and they were towing the truck. Her employer was forced to pay $12,950 to get the vehicle back.
Over the last year, the City of Memphis Permits Office has received more than a dozen complaints from truckers from all over the country who said they were illegally booted and towed by A1’s, and last month, the city released this statement:
Per the ordinance, if the owner or operator of a motor vehicle that is parked without authorization on private property attempts to retrieve said vehicle before booting actually occurs, there shall be no fee, and the vehicle owner shall be allowed to remove the vehicle without further delay. The booting ordinance does not specify what type of vehicle can be booted.
The maximum amount a booting company can charge to remove a boot is $50.00 per the city ordinance. The ordinance states that no vehicle affixed with a boot may be towed unless the owner of the vehicle fails to contact the booting company within 24 hours of the notice. Towing fees are based on the type of wrecker being used. A Class C wrecker rate is $350.00 per hour. The ordinances state vehicles.
The tow fee is based on the type of tow truck being used. The rate for a Class A wrecker is $125.00, Class B wrecker is $200.00 per hour, and Class C wrecker is $350.00 per hour.
We have two complaints that are before the Transportation Commission regarding a refund for a tow. We have several complaints that are going to be discussed at an administrative hearing.
Memphis City Councilman Frank Colvett also told WREG he wanted city leaders to take a closer look at the large fees A1’s Towing & Hauling was charging truck drivers that were being towed from area truck stops.
A1’s said it’s following state laws that supersede city law and has filed a lawsuit against the City of Memphis, the Memphis Police Chief, and multiple MPD officers, accusing them of “weaponizing a civil municipal ordinance to discriminate against the minority-owned company.”
The lawsuit cites several instances where they say police officers conspired with truck drivers to manufacture charges against the A1’s employees to accomplish the City Of Memphis’ discriminatory goals.
In October, a Tennessee Department of Safety and Homeland Security spokesperson said the Tennessee Highway Patrol was assisting the Memphis Police Department with an investigation of A1’s Towing and Hauling.
TN DHS said THP’s Criminal Investigations Division is providing assistance upon request as Memphis Police look into A1’s activities but wouldn’t go into specifics.
...
The owner of MHT Group Inc. said even though he got his truck back, he plans to take legal action against A1’s and is talking to other trucking companies considering the same thing.
“We are not letting this go. There is a big American company I know very well, and their lawyers and my lawyers are going to work together to get something done,” the MHT owner said. “I’m not going to let it happen again.”
On November 21, a Memphis City Council committee is expected to discuss alleged abuses of the City’s Booting and Towing Ordinances by certain local companies.
Parking is hard to find, and too many were parking for the night and never even buying anything from the truck stop. It wasn’t fair to the truck stop for them to take parking space away from their paying customers. So they started at least getting something for them taking up parking space.
Not in Memphis. Memphis isn't really Tennessee though, it's a thugocracy that's basically a northern extension of the Mississippi Delta where you'd see the exact same thing if anybody ever drove through there.
Memphis is Baltimore of Tennessee.
There should be a much lower cap to get a truck back.
Quite a story. In this case government against government.
Nearly incomprehensible writting
Part of the ‘Dixie Mafia’? Perhaps the risk/reward for bootlegging and prostitution isn’t as good as for towing scam.
Nearly incomprehensible writting
_____________________________________________
TV News Gerbalists are idiots. Junior college Journalism dropouts. They look good on TV, that’s all that matters.
“In this case government against government.”
It got out of hand from what I understood later. It was too frequent and there were too many formal complaints to ignore. But it would probably never happen these days. They are all just as crooked as each other.
Back then I always wondered why the state did not police their own. From what I see now days I realize it was indeed known but nothing was done about it. This alone speaks volumes about how they don’t police themselves when they should. It sure was an embarrassment they could have avoided. But the blue line is obviously a very serious pact.
$12,950 parking ticket...
Tennessee Attorney General should be involved.
You could not pay me enough to travel through Memphis or Atlanta again. Memphis better clean up their act. They could lose Fedex. Pilots want no part of Memphis. Not hiring now but I know guys who have left or marked Fedex off their list because of Memphis. I also know one that turned down an offer from Delta after interviewing in Atlanta.
Probably Klingit Eskimos or something like that. Could be those pesky Amish again.
Dont hold your breath.
It sounds like the towing company and the Police Department are in cahoots. I would not doubt if the Mayor and City Council are not in on the scam also. The best thing to do is stay your ass out of Memphis. Fuel up before you get to Memphis. Do your business and get the hell out.
“They hunt for cars and like you described will come into parking lots and take them.”
My car was towed from an Ormand Beach Days-Inn motel.
Warnings to “Park with front of vehicles to be ‘facing-in’ or your car will be towed”. (Written in white shoe polish on lobby windows). I complied, and turned in for the night.
Ormand Beach Police said, “It was the option left to motel parking lots to have derelict cars removed”.
My car is in the middle of being repainted, so it cost me $150 CASH in the early morning to continue my journey. (Hardly worth getting a lawyer, but lawyers themselves probably only have write a letter). I emailed Days-Inn, who said they were sorry I was inconvenienced. (!)
I suspect a scam between that Days-Inn motel and the tow truck company. (Eastern-European-owned, BTW).
If the rig is idling, can they tow it?
Very short distance towing while idling can be done if done correctly, short distance because even if you cage all the air brake chambers so it will roll freely, you would still not be able to undo the drive shaft while it is idling, it still tries to turn even in neutral and can injure you or kill you.
But idling is not the problem. The problem is most states will not let you tow a vehicle with a live human in it. Here is where the cops were wrong for letting the tow driver even touch it with someone in it. I would never even hook up to or touch a vehicle with anyone still alive in it.
(Yes, I have towed several accidents with deceased still in them straight to the coroner’s office at the coroner’s request. Because it would have taken a couple hours and been a visual spectacle that might cause other accidents to remove all of the deceased from the vehicle and a major freeway was blocked.)
But it doesn’t matter if you are in the right or not to tow it, if you somehow jolt it around and injure that person you are in a multi-million dollar lawsuit and you will never again get an insurance company to give you coverage on any of the vehicles in your fleet. You would have to change your company name and start over like you were a new tow company. And this is NOT easy.
That tow company was stupid for even making physical contact with that truck at all with the driver still in it. If they had made him fall inside there and hit his head or break an arm they would have been screwed.
.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.