My Nightmare Need All The Help I Can Get!?!?!?!?!?!?

[n_bogie]

WARNING LONG STORY

Well I bought a 1990 240 sx se in mid feb and drove the car 200 miles with no plates on it. Never got bothered. So i get the car home and let it sit there for bit. March 21 i drive the car to my fathers garage to really look into the car and get it ready for inspection. that afternoon i drive the car home and get pulled over in this small town which only has 1 cop. (and i was even on back roads) Never the less he was having my car towed to my hosue for no registration. I was ok with this. Then he runs my vin number threw the dmv computer and this is when the fun starts. The dmv rejected the vin and said is was invalid. So he ceased the car and towed it to a garage in my town. He told me someone would contact me to veiw the title and such. Well 3 weeks goes by and still no word and cant get ahold of anyone. I finely talk to the cop and he said that dept of safty looked at the car 2 weeks ago and figured it all out. Mistake on there half, and that the cop told the garage i could have the car back. and that i would have to pay storage charges up untill the point they said i could have it, which i didnt agree with but didnt argue. so i talk to the garage and he says that i gotta pay all fees and that it was 300 dollars to that day (april 1st i beleave) I was like i dont feel it is my response ablitiy to pay for these storage charges when it was the dmv fault and the car should have been towed to my house end of story, so then i asked if the car could be removed from his property to my step fathers work place which borders his land to stop the storage charges untill it was figured out. He said not hat he wanted the money. so i have been tring to get ahold of the cop for the last 3 weeks. (seeing how he has no station kinda hard, have called dispatch over 10 times to try and get ahold of him and no return calls.) so i took it appon myself to go take the car last night. i wrote a check for the towing charge and left a note stateing i could not afford to not work due to being carless and that i am tring to contact people on these charges and who is going to pay them. Well 5:30 this morning the owner of the garage shows up at my house and starts yelling that i was unlawful by theft of services. I told him that i had left a check for the towing and that this is all i was willing to pay. he told me that bill was little over 400 dollars and that he would not let me have car unless i gave him a couple hundred right on the spot. I told him iw as going to contact a lawyer to see where i can go on this and he has the nerves to say well the cost you pay for a lawyer you might as well give me my money now. So the car is out side driven into drive way in gear with e-brake on and the wheel locked all the way to the left. he says he is towing back to his shop. i ask if i can drive it there he says no. then i ask if i can unlock the car and take it out of gear and such and he also says no need that he has a flat bed. so i sit here and watch him yank my car accross the driveway onto ther truck and leave. so 10 o clock this morning i decide to try and call the cop yet again an guess what he is off duty. so im getting mad and ask to speak to any cop on duty, he says ok and that someone will call me right back. well its been almost 2 hours since then and still nothing.

I am getting kicked out of my house on friday due to not working which is caused by not being able to go to work. and i need to get this car back.

any helpful ideas on what i should do would be great. sorry for spelling and such im kinda mad and hiting the keyboard kinda hard.

[Atomic-S14]

that sucks man~ hope everything works out.i'm getting ripped off by this one guys off ebay too sent the payment for the dash and air bag set for $650 on april 5thand i still dont have the dash. he never sent the item out.everything i call, the guy gives me bull**** and says that he'll ship it out tomorrow and he been telling me that story for about 2 weeks now.i don't know what to tell him and he won't give me back my money.

[n_bogie]

ya i know the feeling but your talking about so scum bag that sits home and rips people off. im talking about the town cops who i help pay there income. im just so mad right now, that no cop will show me the respect and even call me back.

[thekage]

Dude that SUCKS!I feel you.. I had a nightmare with an accident and towing/storage/cops/theft... it sucks.

Contact a lawyer immediatley.

[thekage]

and he would not have taken it off my property... espesially not in gear with e brake on dragging it.mr smith and mr wesson would have made sure..

[n_bogie]

ya trust me it is a pain in the arse. and trust me he is lucky my mom was sitting there or he would not have had to worry about no 240 because the 270 was about 15 feet away

[neagan]

I doubt you want to hear this- but unfortunately, you are liable. At least in my state, you are (did towing to pay for college tuition). Usually, the towing company is a private ownership and contracts out with the county for situations like this.Once you made the decision to drive it without being DMV legal, you lost the right to keep your car- even if it was a DMV snaff.

The towing company gains legal right to the car once they file a lean for non payment. By taking the car from the towyard you did break the law, and it will cost you a vast sum of funds to hire an attorney on something like this. Either way, you would still need to pay the towing fee to Legally take possesion of your car and THEN sort it out.

It's been my observation that Tow-Yard owners are most often slime and power hungry. He'll now try to charge you for the 'extra' towing fees.

I would suggest, if you really want your car back, that you call him up, apologize profusely for ruining his morning by your unfamiliarity with the law and ask what you need to do to make things 'right' with him. He won't give a rat's *** what your issue with the police officer is- it's all about greed on his part; all he wants is cash. If you go down with Cash waving from your fist he should be willing to negotiate. No cash to appeal to his selfishness, and you'll probably find out he'd rather be an *** and keep your car.

As I said, most of these guys are only motivated by cash and 'respect'. If you try and argue with him his ego will probably make things worse. Sorry, but that's usually how it works. It sure ain't right though..... Nitro

[guyaverage]

^^ Agreed.

I worked in repos for a car finance company for 4+ years, overseeing almost 8000 repos. Trust me, cash is all these guys want. Some will negotiate, some wont. They dont care what the sob story is, they want to get paid for towing and storing cars. Period.

Going to his lot and stealing your car back (yes, it IS theft) wont get you anything except MORE trouble. LOTS of it. Get the cash anyway you can and get down there and pay the guy asap, its only going to get worse.

Your only help here is that some states require a registered letter from the tow company that they have your car, how much per day they are charging, and how to get the car back. Also some states cap total storage fees and/or limit per day fees. Do some checking (quickly) and get on it.

[n_bogie]

ok here is how it stands now

$ 50 for towing which is paid $380 for storeing

i went to the police station today and avoided the town cops. i taked with a state trooper there that is friends with the officer that pulled me over and he said he will get right on it. i also talked with the county retired police cheif of 24 years. they both agree with me on the storage fees. they both said that it is not at my fault and i should not be reasponseable for the storage. they said at most i should only have to pay for the 3 days untill the car was able to be realeased which i was never aware of.

[n_bogie]

none of them seemed to care at first when i said i was only getting charged 10 bucks a day for storage untill they found out it has been over a month of me tring to contact people and not getting anything back

[neagan]

In my area it can be anywhere from $60-120 a day storage fees.....

[n_bogie]

ya i understand it is very good price on storage but i just feel it aint my place to pay for there mess up

[n_bogie]

another useful tad bit. the was no talk or agreement or signs or anything on charges for storage befor hand or even the week of. i was not told i was paying storage charges or how much they where untill almost 3 weeks after the fact. should this way into it at all? i mean i dont think you can store a car then downt he road say o well you owe this much when it was never agreed or stated.

[n_bogie]

any other ideas?

[Dattebayo]

How about a lawsuit? You could get way more than the cost back. How about judge brown? Or judge Judy if she is still around?

[n_bogie]

lol here is the lovely update. well i talked with the garage and he said he should charge me 20 dollars a day which would figure out to 820 dollars today but he said for 200 i can take it off his hands. so i called to try and talk to the town cop, come to find out he is a part-time fill in. so then they direct me to my town cops, who direct me to the county station, who then send me to the state police barracks who then, send me to some idiot that works for the dmv. he then tells me i can do nothing besides pay the bill and then go to the town which i got pulled over and try meeting with thier selectman. but this dmv guy says that as soon as the tow guy hooks on it is all in his hands and he can charge what ever he wants with out me knowing. and even though its been such a long time 10 dollars a day is very kind. so i have gotten no where and my car still sits there. I NEED HELP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[n_bogie]

and the other lovely thing is that i guess in nh after 60 days the guy can sell the car with out me knowing to pay off the storage charges

[nismofly]

ouch...

so he wants $200 on top of the $300 you already gave him when you went and grabbed the car?

[n_bogie]

no i refused to pay the 300 i only payed 50 bucks for the towing charge and told him to keep the storage charge cause i was not paying it.

[n_bogie]

the guy was filling me full of crap. he was going on about how he has to insur the car to sit there and so on. im thinking to myself it is a freaking garage i aint a idiot and he has a wrecker so he has to have like 250k coverage or something. just another guyt hat wants money and nobody around her to tell him otherwise.

[guyaverage]

You dont have the benefit of my 4+ years of experience dealing with these kinds of people, but let me give it to you straight anyway.

PAY the guy.

If he offered to let you have it for $200, then you should have jumped on that like a fat kid in a candy store. The last sentence of your last post showed that you realize what is going on here. These guys want their money, thats ALL they want, and he will get it either from you, or by selling the car. Its that simple.

The fact that no one seems to want to call you back, or they seem indifferent, or that progress keeps stopping on this should tell you that these people are more concerned about their next cup of coffee more than whether or not some guy gets his car back. Sucks, but its true.

Imagine the Mafia kidnaps you, locks you in a dimly lit room and beats the snot out of you day and night. After 3 days, the big boss comes in and says "I aint got time for youz... give me $50 for wastin my time and get outta here" ...Would you sit there and say "No, I'm not paying you, and as a matter of fact I demand an apology for the way you have been treating me" or are you going to say "Here's $50, thanks for the hospitality, see ya later guys" and leave...? If you are smart, the latter. Thats what you need to do here too.

Show up at the guys lot, with CASH in hand, politely HAND it to him and with a whimper tell him its all you have, you are sooooooo sorry you wasted his time, and can you PLEASE have the car. Play up to his ego as much as you can (no matter how much you despise his presence) and you can probably end this today.

Trust me, I have been in your situation literally hundreds of times. I used to do this with 5-6 company cars EVERY DAY. Talk about frustration...... Right or wrong, you may win. MAY win. Rarely. If you are content with more than likely losing the car (I lost MANY), keep doing what you are doing. If you dont have much money and need the car back, pay the guy and give up while the car is still there. You think you're mad now, wait until he sells the car.