A towing company is defending it practices after a big fight over a disabled parking spot in downtown Portland. That fight had a grandma standing in front of a tow truck as it idled... making sure it couldn't leave the parking lot of the downtown Post Office, to keep her car from being towed away.

The situation all started over this parking spot.
The Post Office pays Retriever Towing to patrol its downtown lot, making sure no one parks where they're not supposed to. Late on Friday, a tow truck driver, on his normal rounds, thought he caught a violator in a disabled spot. When he tried to tow the car, the fight was on.

"He said he would only put it down if I gave him $200 because my handicapped thing wasn't displayed," said grandma Sara Graham. She suffers from emphysema, so she parked in the disabled spot as she stopped at the Post Office with her son, helping him apply for a new Passport. When the two went inside, a Retriever Towing driver, on his assigned patrol, hooked-up her car.

Sara's son, John Graham, ran out when he saw what was going on. He said, "I saw him towing the car, and I said, she has a handicapped thing. He said it's not displayed. I said, well let me display it. He said okay, display it and I'll put the car down."

Sara had forgotten to put her placard in the window. But when she presented it, the tow truck driver didn't give up.

"He wouldn't put the car down," John said. "And he said, now I need $195."

Sara said, "Got my handicapped thing out of the door, put it up, and the guy wouldn't put it down."

Retriever Towing's President, Gary Coe, told NewsChannel 8 the driver did what he was supposed to do. "She should have had it in her car and did not."

As for why he asked for payment to release the car, Coe said the driver was merely trying to recover his cost. "He has gone through the expense of patroling, and hooking it up, so he charges a drop fee," Coe said.

The Post Office's public relations officer, Ron Anderson, went as far as to plead with the driver to release Sara's car. He told Sara that he, "Came out and immediately asked the tow truck driver to put your vehicle down. And he wouldn't do it."

Eventually Portland Police officers convinced the tow truck driver to relent. He drove off without comment.

"I think this is ridiculous," Sara said. "My son asked him what would you do if your mother made a mistake like this. He said she's have to pay. Poor mother."

Still, the tow company says the driver was just doing his job. The company originally said it would send the drop fees to a collection agency. But when NewsChannel 8 talked to the President, he said he would drop all the fees.

The key lesson: don't forget that placard.

http://www.kgw.com/news-local/stories/kgw_050908_news_towing_fight.e5d12657.html

The REAL key lesson: Retriever Towing and Gary Goe are greedy bastards who make a living off extorting people.

I did not realize parking in a disabled spot was an immediate tow. Sure a ticket but not a tow. Maybe the post office should contract with a different company!

Is everybody a thief?!?!?!?

I had an incident with Retriever Towing as well a few years back when I was running the Schmizza in Gresham.

I had my VW Bus parked in what had always been a parking spot, by the back door of my store. It had always been designated a parking spot; the complex even put one of those parking curb slab things in the front of it there.

My Bus was parked there overnight one evening, and the Retriever Towing guy on patrol took it upon himself to decide that it was a loading zone (which it wasn't!) and towed the Bus.

I show up the following morning and my Bus is gone. I thought it was stolen ... so I call the police and they told me that Retriever Towing towed it. I called Retriever Towing madder than a wet hen, and actually talked to Gary himself. He told me it would be $350 to get it out of impound. I told him that it was towed from a legal parking spot, and I had been parking there for three years. He didn't care and he didn't want to hear it; I paid up in seven days, or the Bus got auctioned.

I immediately called the property management (who was pissed as well, they ended up dumping Retriever Towing over the incident). I also called the Better Business Bureau, and found out that Retriever Towing had a laundry list of complaints against them, enough that I was asked to be part of a class-action suit against them for illegal business practices. Gary Coe agreed to cut the cost of getting my Bus out of hawk in half (how thoughtful of him!) and Gresham Station covered the other half.

The towing business in Portland has been under a lot of scrutiny over the years for shady dealings, and Retriever Towing is the worst of the worst. How the hell Gary Coe can look at himself in the mirror, I do not know. Demanding that kind of money from an elderly lady with emphysema because of a technicality over a handicap placard not being properly displayed is egregious.

I've had issues too.

With me, it was a parking tag that the wind had blown onto the floor of the car. It was still visible, having landed face up.

Greedy bastards just said it was not in the window. The rules say "visible from outside the car".

So, I know when they patrol, and move the thing around, forcing the guy to get out and look each time. Won't be in that lot for another few weeks, thank god!

In the statement above, the cost of patrolling is a sunk cost. It had to be done no matter the state of grannies car, so that's spin. The real cost is the hookup, and that's not $200.

In defense of towing companies, they tend to deal mostly with the lower end of the food chain. To them, you're just another angry face in their way of doing their jobs.

<devil's>

Retriever,Are these the A**holes on about 100th and Powell?

I'll refrain from further comment.

Monkeyboy, their impound yard is off of like 136th and Sandy, Parkrose area kind of.

....How the hell Gary Coe can look at himself in the mirror.......

Because every day he makes money. doesn't matter how, nothing gets in the way of making a buck. So much wrong in the world can be attributed to this way of thinking. It's not about making a living. Certainly, the man is in the towing business, and he makes his living towing cars. Where the line is crossed is when reason, common decency, respect for others, common sense, and compassion are tossed aside, for the sake of another dollar.

In this instance, in the purest sense of the situation, he probably was within the right to tow it. "TECHNICALLY", it was not visible. Where everything else I said comes into play was the placard was in the vehicle, and shown at the time, she was OBVIOUSLY elderly, explained the situation and the post office manager agreed no foul. The driver and company could have backed out with and apology and agreed that the situation was unusual. Unfortunate that this company has no more morals than some of the shady lenders now in trouble. Also obvious that this company has no desire to create any customer "Goodwill" within the community. Some how these big dawgs seem to prosper with their agressiveness. Hard sell car dealers that pursue every last buck, crummy repair shops that do unneeded work then charge for it, sub-prime lenders, check cashing places, and any other business that has no regard for customer satisfaction and community commitment somehow seem to stay in business. It seems that as a society, we have drifted on this course. No manners, no soul, just chasing the next dollar.

Why is it that more people get screwed unjustly, but it seems the true assholes never get their comeuppance?

Technically, you should get a ticket for driving 51 in a 50....

Anybody want to bet that Gary Coe is a conservative?

Even money odds on that one!

http://video.google.com/videosearch?q=YES%20WE%20CAN

(I'm a sucker for this kind of thing. Damn cool.)

He has a job, pretty much means he isnt a democrat.

Oh, so Democrats are jobless heathens now?

It's just gotta suck to be a staunch Republican right now, knowing you are gonna get your political ass kicked very soon.

Using Marvin_the_martian’s circuitous logic, only job holding Republican’s are permitted to behave like a**holes. That explains George W. Bush and Dick Cheney. Thanks for the insight, Marvin_the_martian.

*Plonk!*

Enjoying your circle jerk guys?

(hands plate of sour grapes to Deane)

Jealous you're physically unable to join?

FOUL on Deane....
Reciprocal foul Vitalogy......

Offsetting..... each team charged.

Jumpball center court.

I played center in my basketball days and won many a jump ball...

$200?!?! Last time I had to bribe a tow driver to unhook a car it was only $50!

I can't say I have a lot of sympathy for the lady though. She didn't display the placard. Thems the rules... How was the towtruck guy supposed to know it wasn't me parked there? Doesn't he deserve to be paid for the work he did?

This is a good argument against contracting with/allowing private companies to "enforce laws". If it was a city tow truck, the lady could have gone to court, shown that she had the right to park there and gotten the fees refunded. With a private company, you get to deal with Gary Coe and there's no recourse.

...and I played punching bag in my junior high school days

:-)

I Bet!

Hey, I could see $50, but $200 is extortion, plain and simple. It takes no time and no effort at all to lift a car. And besides, she was entitled to park there regardless of whether her card was visible or not. Had the tow truck towed her car to the lot, then she should have had to pay since services were perfomed. But paying money to lower the car back down to the ground is taking advantage of the situation.

Our car was towed by Retriever towing from the private parking lot of my wife's OFFICE several years ago. Only 6 cars were allowed in that lot. Including our car. Retriever's contract with the building owner stated they needed to CALL the building owner for permission before towing anyone. They towed our car anyway. They pulled the same garbage on us. Cash only. At the impound lot. Jerk

We didn't pay cash. We didn't go to the impound lot. We called the office building's owner, who called Retriever, who towed our car to our home. It helps when the owner of your office building is a prominent attorney. . .

"It takes no time and no effort at all to lift a car."

I'd have to disagree... hooking the car up means he'll have to unhook it, that's 90% of the work right there. Driving from A to B is the easiest part.

I had a buddy who was a tow driver in Omaha for a while, and the laws there were such that if they towed a car and managed to keep it for a relatively short period of time (week or two) without the owner finding it and coming up with the cash to claim it, they could file for a salvage title and sell it! Legalized car theft! He was always on the lookout for nice cars that he could take.

I've seen a tow truck lift a car before. They back up, the metal thing comes out, and the car gets lifted. It's not $200 worth of work.

Exactly.

That plus the sunk costs of patrolling make this a scam all the way around.

Say that driver makes 70K / year, which I seriously doubt is too low. That's roughly $35 per hour. Now, take bennies, if the driver gets them and it works out to say $45 and that's being really generous.

That's two hours work!

Those guys can hook up and be gone in 10 minutes, if they want to on most cars and many parking situations.

Factor in the fuel and patrol costs at another $45 / hour and you get maybe one half hour of work total, which still isn't enough to justify the $200 rate as "costs" that need to be "recovered".

If it were, that tow company would be a losing business.

All bullshit.

Some tow trucks actually park in the lots they are supposed to be patrolling and wait for a happless car to park there. This is against the law but I have read on the net that these guys do it all of the time. Hint: If you see someone sitting in a tow truck parked in a parking lot, BEWARE! Also, take your camera phone and snap off a few and post them for everyone to see on the net. Stalk the stalkers!

"I've seen a tow truck lift a car before. They back up, the metal thing comes out, and the car gets lifted. It's not $200 worth of work."

We're in agreement that it's not $200 worth of work, but I'm certain that you're forgetting some of the steps. They have to drag out the back half of the wheel lifts, install them, adjust them, strap the wheels to the lift, crawl under the car and attach the safety chains, etc. And given that he doesn't have access to the interior to release the e-brake, he'll probably have to put the rear wheels on a dolly too. It's not as simple and easy as you make it sound.

Again, I'm not saying it's worth $200(that's the "free" market at work), but I *am* saying that once the car is on the lift, the job is more than half done, and the most of the other half will have to be done to get the car *off* the lift.

It's the company owner (and the property owner who made the deal with him) who's the crook. The driver likely gets paid on commission, so he's taking money out of his own pocket to "do the right thing".