Posted on 07/02/2002 3:37:57 PM PDT by chance33_98
Family Towed While Still In Car Police: Tow Truck Driver Drives Up To 100 Yards Before Stopping Posted: 11:42 a.m. EDT July 1, 2002 Updated: 9:37 a.m. EDT July 2, 2002
DALLAS -- Police are investigating after they say a woman and her two small children were taken for an unexpected ride Sunday night.
Roberta Benites said a tow truck driver towed away her Ford Explorer while she and her daughters were inside. She said she didn't realize she was in a tow-away area.
Officials said the incident happened at a strip shopping center parking lot. Roberta said her daughters were sitting in the car to stay out of the rain while her husband was playing soccer.
"I quickly jumped out of the car to tell the driver my kids were in the car, but instead of stopping, he took off very fast," Roberta said.
The tow truck driver drove about 50 to 100 yards before stopping, police said. He gave a quick apology and then left, Roberta said.
Police are investigating the incident and the woman's claim that that she was not illegally parked at the time she was towed.
Well what the hell was she doing when the tow truck driver was hooking up the car? Takes at least a few minutes just to hook up!
Were they asleep?
Those tow truck drivers can be pretty stealthy.
Yep. They're always sneaking around on their tippy-tows.
...the woman claim[ed] that she was not illegally
parked at the time she was towed
Well, which is it?
I would like to know where the driver of this vehicle was though while the tow truck driver was hooking up her SUV. Asleep or on dope, I guess.
They even towed a DHL van. It took them only about 60 seconds to get a car, the rest of the time they race around the tow zones to get more victims.
I guess one UNcool part is that they trashed the side of one car, which the driver feigned ignorance over until they showed him the video...
TLC or Discovery had a show on repo tow truck drivers...they would lightly hook up cars, then drive a couple miles before stopping to futher secure the car.
Not to mention how dim they keep those floodlights on the back, and how the always keep those winches oiled so the never make any noise.
Steve Goodman © 1972, 1973, Buddah Music and Turnpike Tom Music.
In Chicago where I live, there's a... there's a outfit that'll tow just almost anything off the streets but they deal mostly in automobile. and we call 'em the Lincoln Park Pirates*.
The street lamps are on in Chicago tonite and lovers are gazin at stars, the stores are all closin' and Daley is dozin' and the fatman is counting the car; There's more cars than places to put 'em he said but I got room for them all, so round 'em up boys I want some more toys, hit the lot by the grocery store (chorus) --to me-- WAY HEY TOW'EM AWAY The Lincoln Park pirates are we; from Wilmette to Gary There's none that so hairy and we always collect our fee WAY-HEY tow 'em away we plunder the streets of your town, be it Edsel or Chevy, there's no car to heavy And no one can make us shut down. We break into cars when we gotta with pick axe and hammer and saw, they said this garage had no license but little care i for the law all my drivers are freindly and courteous; their good manners you always will get for they all are recent graduates from the charm school in Joliet (chorus) And when all of the cars are collected, and all of their fenders are ruined then I'll tow every boat in belmont harbor to the Licoln park Lagoon and when I've collected the ransom and sunk all the ones that won't yield then i'll tow all the planes that are blocking the runways at midway, O'Hare and Meigs Field --to me-- WAY HEY TOW'EM AWAY The Lincoln Park pirates are we; from Wilmette to Gary There's none that so hairy and we always collect our fee Way hey, tow 'em away, -- Citizens Gather around I think its enough and lets call his bluff Yeah lets throw the bum out of town.
(in case there is any misunderstanding)
I had been dreaming of a car protection device that incorporated small webcams as well as alarms. The cams would be positioned so as to afford a 360 degree view all around your car. They would have to be set to motion sensitive triggers (so they wouldn't be filming all the time) and they would be inside the car so the perp couldn't disable them first. When it was triggered it would make small file jpegs in one or two second intervals and fire them off to either your cell phone (which would have to have a suitable storage device installed) as file messages or to your ISP (you'd pay for the service).
It wouldn't be foolproof, but it would be a strong deterrent. This could also perhaps be modified to function as a personal safety device which would be worn. If you were getting mugged or about to be killed- or if your kids were in harm's way, it could perhaps fire off some pics of the assailant/perpetrator in the same manner. It wouldn't stop whatever evil was being done at the time but it might help the cops locate the criminal (or your kidnapped child) later. If these devices proved effective and came into common usage, it might then serve as a deterrent to these types of crimes. I reckon the gov't would find a way to abuse it, but for now I think having the devices designed to send the pics to your PDA, cell phone or other personal data storage instead of to a public data base would get around that.
Kooky idea, I know. I got a million of 'em. Like to throw one out there every once in a while.
D'oh! Maybe I better get cracking ;-)
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