What happens when a woman's car is mistakenly towed from her own driveway?

We recently got a call about a very suspicious problem. Alexis called us because she was being given the runaround. But first, here’s here story:

One morning, Alexis went outside to get her car from her driveway, and the car was gone. It was nowhere to be seen. Assuming it was stolen, she filed a police report. The police took the information about her car. A couple of days later they called to tell her that they had an answer. Her car had been reported as an abandoned vehicle and towed to a lot, where it was currently accruing towing and storage fees.

Alexis was surprised and confused, because her car was never abandoned. It had been in her driveway all night. After a little bit of sleuthing, she discovered that her car had been reported abandoned in the parking lot of a nearby fast food restaurant. The night manager there said that on the night Alexis’ car went missing, he saw a tow truck drop off a vehicle in their parking lot and drive away. After the car was not moved for two days, the restaurant security had the car towed, at the owner’s expense.

Now Alexis knew where her car was, but she still wasn’t sure what had happened. And during this time, her vehicle had accrued expensive towing and storage fees. It appeared that her car had been mistakenly towed, and when the driver discovered the mistake, they dumped that car at a local fast food restaurant instead of taking it back home. Aelxis went back to the police, but she was told that because neither the driver nor the initial tow company had made any money by towing her car, no crime had been committed, and they could not offer any additional help.

Alexis called TrustDALE, and while we were unable to track down the towing company that made the initial mistake, we were able to get in touch with the company that had Alexis’ car, Caroline’s Towing. They had held it for two months, waiting for someone to pay to get the car back. But when Dale visited their office to explain the situation, they were more than willing to make it right. As their owner told us, “It’s the right thing to do…Whoever dropped that car in that shopping center should have took it back to her house.” So they did what the other tow company didn’t do, and towed Alexis’ car back to her home.

As we often see at TrustDALE, most companies want to do what’s right, and Caroline’s Towing did just that.