Motorists were required to leave behind amid the North Fire that encapsulated the I-15 freeway in Cajon Pass. Now, owners are complaining that towing companies have charged $1,000 or more to move cars, according to The San Bernardino County Sun.
"They are charging $220 an hour to all those people that abandoned their cars at ... Cajon Pass yesterday," Michelle Sepulveda wrote on her Facebook page, accordion got The Sun. "The family my brother saved yesterday is having to pay well over $2,600 to get her car out and every hour she waits, the more it goes up."
The California Highway Patrol is investigating the allegations.
"We called in several tow companies we had on rotation," said Steve Carpia, spokesman of the Inland California Highway Patrol. "When we learned of the complaints we began to investigate, eventually resolving this issue."
"I have a ,600 bill for the towing and that, the #CHP tells me is pretty much extortion." - Car Owner discussing #NorthFire #TowingScandal
โ CAL FIRE NEWS (@CalFireNews) July 19, 2015
Desert Towing is charging people $700 because they towed the cars in the #NorthFire. Our govt leaders need to step in and make this right!โ Mykel Pickens (@qykpick) July 18, 2015
Some towing companies have gone as far as to publicly denounce overcharging in order to distance themselves from accusations made over social media.
"Our company does not operate on people's hopelessness, and any illegal activity or overcharging," said Richard Monroy, manager of Gonzales Tow in Victorville. "We understand the public's concerns and decided we will not be a tow company who will profit from the obvious situation."
Gloria Chairez, owner of AZX Auto Transport operation in Fontana, called the gouging companies a "sorry part of my industry."
"The owners of the vehicles were told to leave their keys so their cars could be moved (by volunteers) yet most didn't," she said. "I couldn't believe the tow companies were literally clawing and fighting for those vehicles, adding up the dollars as each one they obtained."
Some 70-80 vehicles were abandoned on the freeway, fire officials said following Friday's evacuation. About 20 cars were destroyed and 10 more suffered damage as the blaze crossed the heavily-traveled freeway.
An incident report updated Monday indicated the North Fire has burned 4,250 acres since it began just before 3 pm PT on Friday.
My friend @stuartpalley is an incredible wildfire photographer. Here, the #NorthFire: pic.twitter.com/D6vE74RPAW โ Matt Pearce (@mattdpearce) July 18, 2015
Fire crews said they have achieved 95 percent containment of the fire, which has ceased spreading, the US Forest Service said.
Thirteen fire crews with more than 600 total personnel have been employed to combat the blaze, according to the state's incident report. All evacuation orders have been lifted. The cause of the fire is under investigation.
i went to a club where there was parking across the side street, to the right of the drive way was okay to park to the left apparently it wasn't and there was no way to tell. This was an office park and i can understand the no parking if the car was left overnight but i was towed within 15 minutes (i had a cell call and the tow time stamp to figure this out) of parking there. The no parking sign was the size of a postage stamp hidden by a bush that had the "call this number" to get your car back....reminder 20 feet away it was okay to park.
the place where you pay was NOT the same as where you picked the car up, there was a line OF ABOUT 15 PEOPLE ALL PAYING $250 for in reality was extortion to get their cars back, who knows how many people there really were in all but just do the math.
my favorite water hole is in a shopping center that had a Ralph's as the main tenant, the store was closed and within the same week a no parking sign went up (this is a parking lot of about 250 spaces) that warned no "overnight parking" now this is a parking lot with a bar and some apartments nearby so there was lots of overnight parking in a mostly EMPTY PARKING LOT. So the scam was the trucks would wait until (usually 2-3 tow trucks) about 2:30am and then quickly hook up a car and tow it down the street to a nearby church and then repeat until the lot was empty (word was they towed 30 plus cars a night) and then spend the rest of the night hooking up the cars in the proper fashion to tow them (and this is the best part) about 10 miles away to the holding lot (which was not open weekends to add to the cash flow at $30 a day storage) where you picked up the car.
it's no coincidence that the main tenant left and the towing started the same week, it's a full on scam in southern California!!! I'll bet money that the owner of the property bought a tow company the same day that the Ralph's closed.