Tow company owners made millions illegally towing parked cars, California official says

A California towing company has been suspended after accusations of illegally towing cars in a scheme that made its owners millions of dollars, officials say.

It was primarily non-English speakers who were victims of Auto Towing’s tricks, according to a Feb 6 news release from the San Francisco city attorney’s office.

Most of the victims were Spanish- and Cantonese-speaking people who were “especially vulnerable to predatory tows,” officials said.

City Attorney David Chiu suspended Auto Towing for multiple unscrupulous behaviors, including towing parked cars illegally from a private lot, limiting the hours in which people could get their vehicles and insisting car owners pay only in cash.

Under the California Vehicle Code, vehicle owners have the right to retrieve their vehicles 24 hours a day and can pay with cash or credit card.

“Auto Towing intentionally misled and scammed people out of hundreds of dollars by illegally towing cars and making them hard to retrieve,” Chiu said.

In August, the city attorney initiated debarment proceedings against Auto Towing after it illegally towed several cars from a private parking lot without the consent of the property owner.

Meanwhile, the two owners of Auto Towing were allegedly making millions of dollars a year through the illegal practice, officials said.

The pair ran three towing businesses in the area from 2018 and 2023, generating more than $2 million in gross annual income, officials said.

The two were also allegedly up to another ploy.

In October, the district attorney’s office charged them both with multiple felonies stemming from an alleged welfare fraud scheme in which they misrepresented their income to receive benefits they didn’t qualify for, officials said.

With these charges in place, Chiu was able to speed up the company’s debarment. On Feb. 2, he filed the suspension order for Auto Towing and affiliated companies and individuals, including the owners, according to officials.

“They took advantage of the public and defrauded our safety net programs,” Chiu said. “(They) have demonstrated a clear pattern of predatory behavior designed to enrich themselves at the expense of the most vulnerable among us.”

Auto Towing did not immediately respond to McClatchy News’ request for comment on Feb. 8.