27-02-2025
Car owner, experts say Kansas City has a predatory towing problem
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — It's called 'predatory towing.' Tow trucks take your car, often for questionable reasons, then make it as expensive as possible to get it back, and sometimes you don't.
'They stole my vehicle from this parking spot right here,' said 31-year-old Ahmani Lewis, a single mother.
At the time, she was living at an apartment complex in south Kansas City. It was 6 a.m.
'I was carrying my baby, to take her today care and I came outside and my car was gone,' she said. 'So, I was like freaking out cause 'where's my car?', I don't know where my car is!'
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But as she would soon find out, her 2017 Chevrolet Cruz had been taken by a tow truck from Downtown Towing and Recovery.
Why? She was parked in a handicapped spot.
Lewis found that the tow company wanted $405 to give her back her car.
There was just one problem.
When she went to the company's lot, she walked one of their employees to her car.
'I went to my car and showed her I had a handicapped placard in my car, which is what she's saying it was already towed for,' Lewis said.
In other words, Lewis had not been in violation of the apartment complex's parking rules.
'So, you get in your car?' FOX4's Malik Jackson asked.
'Mm-mm.'
'You leave?' Jackson asked.
'I leave,' Lewis said.
'And you don't pay?'
'And I don't pay,' Lewis replied.
But little did Lewis know, her problems were only beginning.
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'We absolutely believe that vehicles are being towed for no good reason,' Teresa Murray told FOX4, 'other than somebody wanting to make money off of it.'
Murray is the consumer spokesperson for the Public Interest Research Group, also known as PIRG.
Starting in 2021, PIRG did a two-part study called 'Getting Off the Hook of a Predatory Tow,' where they examined the issue in most of the U.S. and what kind of consumer legal protections there were in each state.
In the process, Murray said, the group made a surprising discovery.
'Far and away, Missouri was the place for predatory towing,' Murray said. 'We got more complaints about Missouri.'
On top of it, Murray added that a closer look at those complaints revealed that one of the worst places in the state was the Kansas City area.
Part of the surprise behind their finding is that Missouri has a reputation for having good laws that protect car owners from bad tows.
However, Murray explained, 'It's clear the laws are not being complied with and when people are making complaints, there's just no follow-through.'
FOX4 found plenty of complaints of bad tows.
Some were done without notifying the local police, as is required. Or law enforcement wouldn't be notified until days after the tow. Some tows had bogus towing permission documents that made it appear that someone from the parking property had requested the car's removal. In other cases, towing companies delayed customers from getting their vehicles back by claiming a variety of excuses.
Murray suggested that officials 'need to put the fear of God into some of these towing companies.'
After Lewis took back her Chevrolet Cruz, she said it didn't take long before she started receiving anonymous threats sent to her phone, such as the following:
'Hey Amahni
I'm going to turn your car into a refrigerator. I know where you lay you head so keep that head on a swivel. You won't have your Cruze very much longer ..'
'I'm very terrified,' Lewis said. 'For somebody knowing they can come and take from you and nothing can be done is very, very, traumatizing.'
A few days later, Lewis said it happened again: Her car had disappeared from the apartment lot.
But this time, Lewis said no one reported to the police that it had been towed. Her landlord told her that she knew nothing about it.
'It's very unbelievable. I've never been without my car,' Lewis said. 'I've never been without my car. And I'm a really, good mom. Like I do, I go to work. I have my own business.'
So how does Lewis know that it was Downtown Towing and Recovery that took her car again?
First, her 2017 car was equipped with a tracker called 'On Star' that showed her car was now parked at the storage lot of Downtown Towing.
Second, she got help from friend who happened to have a drone. They repeatedly flew it over the towing lot which revealed a black Chevrolet Cruz parked in the same spot identified by the OnStar tracker.
In addition, the car had the same license plate as Lewis's vehicle.
So, working for you, FOX4 decided to go to Downtown Towing and Recovery to talk with the owner.
However, they claimed they had no idea where the owner was and threatened to call the police.
'You're trespassing,' they said.
After repeated attempts to contact Downtown's owner via email, FOX4 eventually spoke with the company attorney.
The attorney declined to speak on camera for an interview on behalf of his client. He also added that Downtown Towing and Recovery was not a predatory towing business.
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As for Lewis, because of a lack of funds, she is acting as her own attorney in a lawsuit that she filed against Downtown Towing and Recovery. Her next court date is March 11.
As for her car, she said her 2017 Chevrolet Cruz has disappeared again. She says it's no longer in Downtown's lot and that the car's tracking system has apparently been removed.
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