Towed from pay lot

[jcrew]

Parked at an open lot which had a fee of 8 dollars to park there for the night. The vehicle owner pays by putting the payment inside a supplied little yellow envelope and then inserting the envelope inside a metal box at the entrance. When I returned to the lot, my car was missing and I discovered it was towed. Called the towing company and was told by the lot security that I had only put 1 dollar in the envelope. I am 100% positive that I had 8 dollars in there. There was actually about 6-7 other people standing around claiming the same thing happened to them. A large percentage since the lot can only hold around 20 or so cars. I had to pay 240 for the tow, 16 in taxes and 8 for the original parking fee. Is this worthwhile to pursue in small claims court? Would the testimony of all people that got towed be helpful? Can I subpoena the towing company records to see if there were an unusual amount of tows that night (compared to other Saturday nights)? I asked the towing company for just amounts of tows and they wouldn't tell me.

Thanks.

 

[mightymoose]

If you have contact info for a group of people that all got towed at the same time and they are willing to appear in court then maybe you have something. If it is just you- good luck trying to prove that you didn't mistakenly pay only one dollar. If everyone got towed for the same "mistake" then the argument is much more convincing.
You complaint should be against the owner of the lot, not the tow company. There is always the chance that the person that picked up the payment pocketed a few dollars.

 

[jcrew]

It's unlikely that I could convince all or even any to appear in court on my behalf (typical downtown clubbers ). The most optimistic scenario would be signed affidavits and getting most of them to do even that seems unlikely too.

 

[mightymoose]

You can always file small claims and ask the parking lot owner to pay for the tow or produce evidence that you shorted him. It sounds like a situation in which you don't get any kind of receipt... I'm not sure if the burden is on you to prove that you did pay the $8 or if it is on him to prove that you didn't.
Since that parking lot folks called for the tow, it seems reasonable that they should have to prove you were in violation of the terms of use of the lot.

Find out from the tow company what statute was cited when your car was towed. This might help a bit.

 

[jharris352]

You bet, you should all get together and sue at one time. One of you claiming money gone is weak, several of you starts to get fishy. Why would they all not want to sue? They all lost a lot of money. You don't have to hope they show up, subpoena them, they will show up.

 

[jcrew]

Well, I don't really want to force people to waste their time especially since they were scammed also. But I will talk to them and see if each of us think the time trade off is worthwhile. Thanks for all the answers.