Getting your car towed in Los Angeles can quickly turn into a Kafkaesque nightmare, as the daughter of LA Times columnist Mary McNamara recently discovered. What happened sounds like a poorly designed and atrociously expensive alternate reality game about a bureaucratic dystopia:
It began with a temporary "No Parking" sign inconspicuously taped to a tree, easily mistaken for a garage sale notice. It was placed after the car had been parked. From there, the game began:
- A two-hour wait on hold after calling 311, only to be misdirected to an irrelevant tow yard.
- A wild goose chase between various agencies: Culver City Police, LAPD, and unhelpful websites.
- The official website's search function failed three times, then locked her out for 24 hours.
- After locating the car, she rushed to pay $365 before 10 AM to avoid extra charges.
- Plot twist: The car wasn't at the payment location, but at another lot 30 minutes away.
- Two Uber rides and significant work disruption later, she finally found the car.
- The cherry on top: A 15-minute on-foot search of the lot because there was no system to locate vehicles.
The process seems intentionally designed to maximize confusion, wasted time, and emotional distress. For those with less flexible schedules or limited resources, such an ordeal could have dire consequences.
Previously:
• Fighting a crooked tow truck company and winning
• New York cop had tow truck driver arrested for legally repossessing his car
• Watch: deranged tow truck driver attempts to hook moving car in San Francisco
• Tow truck driver charged with killing car owner
• Video expose of towing company scam
