Man impersonates tow truck driver to steal woman's car. She tracks him down. Updated 3X
'I think... My car was stolen by a local tow company?'
Long, weird-ish story.
My car was at a dealership. We are now a part of a class action lawsuit, and had to buy a third car because of it. The car doesn't run, and won't ever end up running again without the recall from said car company being rolled back out.
So we paid the diagnostic fee, for the dealership to 'diagnose' that the engine was dead (due to a manufacturing flaw they're being sued over and have rolled out multiple recalls over).
Well today my spouse thought he was talking to AAA, and they were picking up the car. The person on the other end assured them they were AAA. I told him that was weird, because AAA requires you to be on site for a tow with your ID. But I didn't know if they'd worked something out, since I was at work all day.
I get home and the car isn't here. Mind you, I'm not super concerned about it because the car doesn't even run. It's basically a piece of trash I owe 12k on that's going to sit in my driveway. I speak to him before he goes to bed and he comes out with this:
The tow truck shows up and demands payment. He is adamant he has AAA service and isn't paying, because he wouldn't have had them pick up the car if he had known they weren't AAA. They leave with the vehicle.
I have no idea who has my car. He doesn't either. All of the phone numbers he wrote down, when I googled them, came up as scam numbers. Neither of us signed for the car to be picked up.
No one signed for the dealership to release it. I have no f*cking clue how this even happened. I have never even picked up my *own* car without signing paperwork for it. They just gave it to them.
Now I'm concerned I'm going to need to pay hundreds in tow fees, if I can track down this random tow company, which, I don't even f*cking know who it is? And I never ever agreed to release my car to.
I love my spouse. But he isn't always the brightest bulb. And this is just... I can't. Can I file a police report with APD? Was my car stolen???? What the f*ck?
Here were the top rated comments from readers after this initial post:
I would think that would be theft, unless someone gave them the keys( possibly?). But report it stolen and get the insurance money, cause i assume if you're still making payments then you should have full coverage. Get a new car, right?!
Theft by deception is a thing.
Even if the keys were given willingly, it’s still theft and fraud if the company was misrepresenting themselves.
The next day, the OP returned with an update.
'Update on my car being stolen by a tow truck.'
Well, I certainly feel like the f*cking thing was stolen.
This guy just purchased a tow truck and is an owner-operator. He was definitely trying to charge some crazy amounts too. I referred him to this website:
He said he had never heard of it and didn't care and if he really wanted to he could have charged me $800 to get my car back when he first towed it to the house.
He also kept switching back and forth between calling himself another name and then referring to an owner, and then referring to himself. I think he's the only employee. He kept referring to some mystery person and when I asked him who that was, he was really non-specific.
He'd then call someone his boss. Then he'd tell me he was the owner and his name was Yousef. I'm pretty sure he's the owner, and only employee.
He told me my husband told him the first day that he was going to have him waste his time and drive our car to the house, pretending he has cash. My spouse would have never agreed to pay for a tow, as stupid as he is, he knows he wouldn't pay for AAA.
He went back and forth between wanting me to pay $500 and even at one point went to $350 'because I was being respectful.'
I'm setting a date in tow court because I really don't think this guy is going to release my car if I pay him the $350 he lowered it to.
I had a police officer in round rock involved at one point and he was basically like, yeah, this guy is shady. I couldn't get the dude to answer about 90% of my calls but he would answer the cop immediately.
I also have him changing the price by removing 'taxes and other fees if paid in the next 30 minutes' in text messages, along with telling us we need to stop involving the police because it isn't their business.
So, we'll see how tow court works out.
Here were the top rated comments after this first update:
The only logical step here is to tow his tow truck. UP THE GAME.
Report him to TDLR (Texas department of licensing and regulation). If he doesn’t have a TDLR registration he can’t tow a power wheel legally and he’s going to get reamed by the regulatory body for illegally operating an unregistered towing business. The fact that he doesn’t want the police involved screams that he’s not operating legally.
Please post an update about the hearing.
And update the OP sure did.
'Update on the towed/'stolen' vehicle saga.'
Yousef is housing my vehicle at his personal home address. Why is he doing this?
I don't know.
My car is full of tools. Tools that are worth more than the car at this point. I had neglected to get them while the car was at the dealership. Ignorantly, I assumed eventually, the car would be back at my house.
After days of pressing Yousef for the location of my vehicle so I could inspect it and retrieve said tools, he kept acting as if he were in an actual hostage negotiation.
Saying things like 'You can pick up on Friday - give me an hour notice and I will provide you the address.' and 'I am scared to tell you the location. If I tell you now and you do not show up by 7 pm, you can only get your belongings when the vehicle is released.'
After being pressed, and thinking whatever weird little thoughts go on in his head, he sent me the address. It's his f*cking home address.
To say I want myself or my spouse at his extremely shady house rifling through our car is the understatement of the year. This guy honestly seems so f*cking shady that I would be concerned for my safety. He also does not seem very bright.
I am concerned that he might become afraid or try to shoot us like all those stories you see in the news. A random person uses their driveway, and in their peanut brain they need to come out guns blazing. I do believe Yousef could be that type of stupid.
I feel, personally, that I am being pranked in some way. All of this gets more and more stupid by the day. And every time I think, 'This has got to be the dumbest f*cking thing.' something even f*cking dumber happens, or is revealed to me.
I've e-mailed my application for a date in tow court. I'm exhausted but tonight I'm putting in my TDLR complaint. I failed an exam last week because I spent so much time chasing Yousef down and going back and forth so I didn't study at all.
I honestly feel like I'm developing a Rosie O'Donnell-Donald Trump style relationship with this man, and when our conflict is gone I'll miss it. Or maybe not. I don't know.
Here were the top rated comments after this second update:
He’s violating all sorts of regulations on the storage and access to a towed/impounded vehicle. TDLR for sure.
Here’s the relevant statutes he’s violating for vehicle storage.
Holy sh*t OP. You’re a trooper. I wish you the best and I hope you can get a vacation after all this is resolved.
I know the news stations troll the subreddit for ideas. I’d watch this at 10:00, they need to pick this up.
I didn't think I wanted or needed an update. I was wrong.
Roughly 3 weeks later, the OP provided us with their final update.
'The tow court/car theft saga has ended.'
I won in court.
Two days prior to winning, dipsh*t contacts me and says, 'I have you car for 15 days, and in 15 days you'll lose it...' You can insert some other bullsh*t about how he doesn't want to have to take my car, and he wants to work with me.
I inform dipsh*t that we're going to court.
This is where he becomes concerned, and immediately starts lowering the price and offering to drop the car off. He does this while insisting there's no way we're going to court because he hasn't been served.
I inform him I've fulfilled my obligations and am under no means required to ensure he has/receives proper service in tow court. I tell him I'll give him $150 and he needs to give me my car back the next day. I pick up my car from him with an *actual tow truck driver from AAA.*
While we're waiting there the driver informs me the lot is where he keeps his tow truck. He also says I should call the cops, because the guy isn't licensed to keep cars at this location and he also isn't responding to calls and texts at this point.
Dipsh*t responds to ask me my problem and call me annoying and I believe tell me to shut the f*ck up, or something like that before finally arriving. This is after an hour of us waiting there for him.
Dipsh*t arrives and it's literally some young kid. He gave my boobs an angry stare, demanded his money and releases my car to the other tow truck driver who immediately starts cracking jokes about how I owe him $400.
When I finally get to court, he doesn't show. I tell the judge the story and he seemed confused to say the least. Honestly he seemed to express that he wasn't sure my car hadn't been stolen/this was a real towing company. He basically says, 'Well, this guy didn't show up and good luck getting your money back, I'm ruling in your favor.' He rules I'm owed my $150 plus 55 in court costs.
I disputed the charge with my bank, who was also confused by my continued mention of fraud and a court order. The lady had no clue what I was talking about. Hopefully that works out.
I'm sorry it wasn't less anti-climactic. At this point I expected the guy might show up at my house and tow a different car to teach me a lesson or something. I'm sure if I'd have just waited my car would have been released for free, but having it released for $150 ensured that even if I'd lost I'd paid far less than what it'd be if the judge had sided with him.
That's the last of a story y'all let me carry out over the course of many weeks. MY POS car is now parked outside as a $300/mo reminder to never, ever buy American again.
Here were the top rated comments after this saga's conclusion:
Isn't it lovely how the cops seemed to have been absolutely no help at all? Hopefully the transaction dispute will at least go through.
This is like a Jack and Jill kind of dumb, lol. Once OP had the car's location, why not report the car as stolen and skip the headache? Its clear the guy was shady from the get-go, but they were trying to handle it like a civil matter.