Towed

I had a car towed from my property tonight... and it wasn't mine.

(This photo isn't the actual van, but it's the same make, model and color).

When I brought "Two" home from work tonight, we arrived a little before midnight, and parked on my property was the van that had been parking in front of my garage earlier in the month. "Two's" new car is now parked in front of the garage, so I guess the van driver felt they could park in front of my front door, on my property.

It's not as if they parked on the street in front of my house or somewhere near my property... No, they parked right smack dab in the middle of my driveway. The street was empty, the parking spot in front of their building was empty, the parking spot NEXT to my garage on their property was empty... but they still chose to park on my property.

Well I didn't even turn my car off, I dialed the police. Well, actually, I called few minutes after I sent "Two" into the house to retrieve the phone book, so I could lookup the regular number for the police department. I didn't want to call 911, cause I didn't think it was an emergency. I asked the police officer that answered what my options were, and he said I could have it towed, and I should call the local towing company, and they would remove it. He gave me the name of the company, but didn't think they would be able to do it tonight.

I called the towing company, and they agreed to come out, so I stood outside my building for the 20 minutes it took them to arrive. I waited outside with my car's four-way blinkers on hoping that the owner of the van would notice me and come out to investigate. However, when the tow truck driver arrived no owner had showed. The tow truck driver asked that I have the police here in case there was any problems, so after a quick call and a few minutes two cruisers pulled up.

I explained the situation to one of the officers, and he officer took down the information, had me sign a document stating that it was my indeed property and the vehicle didn't belong to me, and then he gave permission to the tow truck driver to take the van.

The Ford Windstar Van has front wheel drive, and because it was parked with the front end facing the building, the tow truck driver couldn't just tow it. He had to first pull it out of the driveway, and turn it so he could get to the front wheels. He kinda surprised me at how he managed to get the car out of the spot. He just hooked up a cable, to the back of the van and yanked the van out. Then he connected the cable to the front wheel of the van yanked it sideways to turn it.

I started to feel a little bad, but at the same time there was a intense feeling of "satisfaction" as I saw the minor damage that was being done to the van in order to get it off my property. I mean I didn't do the damage, and yet it seemed somehow a fitting punishment.

The van is gone now, the police have left, and now I am sitting here at 1:30AM unable to sleep for fear that the driver of the van is going to get hostile. I don't know the person. Heck, I never actually met the owner, only a person who said they "knew who the van belonged to." They might be a nice person that just made an honest mistake...

Nah, they were blatantly wrong, and I think I was absolutely right to remove the van from my property. Right?

I wonder where they took the van? Hmmmm....

Later Lou