Tow Truck Chasing

Above, my "super-charged" patrol vehicle.

Last night, I was working patrol at a huge town home complex (around 300+ units) about a couple of miles from home.

Part of my duties is parking enforcement. I have to cite red zone, fire lane and vehicle abandonment violations and tow them out, if necessary.

Last night, I spotted a Toyota Prius parked in the fire lane next to an open garage. The general manager of the complex gave us strict rules to immediately cite and tow fire lane violations.

Accordingly, I cited the vehicle and called for a tow truck. In about 15 minutes after I called, the truck arrived. We were unsure if the car could be hooked up before the owner came out, but the driver went ahead with it.

A few minutes later, he got the car hooked up and proceeded to drive it away. Just then the owner of the vehicle ran out yelling, "Hey!" I was somewhat behind in my "super-charged" patrol golf cart watching the tow truck head out with a 50-ish-looking man chasing it on foot. It was a hilarious sight to see! I think this was the first time in ages the man did any kind of running! He had no real chance of catching up with the tow truck.

Per rules, if the owner of a vehicle hooked up to a tow truck comes out before the truck leaves the property, we have to release the vehicle to the owner. I then "gunned" my "super-charged" golf cart and took off after the tow truck to tell the driver to release the vehicle. I barely was able to catch up with the tow truck.

Once I did, the tow truck driver stopped the truck and the owner of the Prius caught up. He claimed that he was just "unloading" his car. I told him that his car was locked with the parking brake set and there was no evidence any unloading activity as the vehicle was cited over 40 minutes before.

Anyway, the very-winded owner learned his lesson and he drove his car to a parking area to properly park it. Still, even though we were unsuccessful in getting it towed off the property, the sight of the guy running after the tow truck was priceless!