Trade Show’s Tools of the Towing Trade Include Lock Poppers

The doors can be locked, the windows can be rolled up. The car can even be a California Highway Patrol cruiser. But if a tow truck operator wants to get in the car, he’ll do it.

Tow truck companies, along with police and locksmiths, can buy tools specially designed to pop car locks quickly, without damaging the vehicle. Although there is no law against anybody buying these tools, men like David Craner, a self-professed pioneer in the car-cracking business, said he will not sell his car openers to just anyone.

“We won’t sell to anybody unless they can absolutely identify themselves,” said Craner, president of Ace Tool Co. in Portland, Ore., who was one of about 60 merchants who set up shop in Anaheim at the annual trade meeting of the Towing and Recovery Assn.

As part of his act, Craner even applied his magic to a CHP car and opened the door in less than a minute, using his “button biter” device, which is made of plastic with a piece of dental floss to one corner.

The three-day trade show, which ended Sunday, featured everything in towing, from $225,000 tow trucks for tractor trailers to $3 autographed posters of a bathing beauty posing with, of all things, a tow truck.

The towheaded tow truck model, Shannon Rae, 22, of Anaheim, known as “Miss Datow,” said she has sold about 250 autographed posters during the show and won the attention of many men, who asked her to pose with them and the tow truck of their dreams.

However, some jealous wives wanted to have Rae towed away for using her “hardware” to sell computer software geared to run a tow business. “I’ve had some women come up to me and say, ‘Hey, this doesn’t belong here,’ ” she said.

But most of those in attendance were towing company owners with serious business on their minds.

“Each year they come up with new stuff,” said Steve Dugan, of S&R; Towing in Oceanside. “I came here to look at all the new equipment.”

Others, like David Little, 24, of Carlsbad, who said he is thinking of starting a towing business, came to the trade show to see what kind of equipment they would like to buy--versus what they can afford.

One tow truck maker, Century Wrecker Corp., spent $65,000 to $75,000 to set up its huge display of several trucks, ranging from standard to super size, capable of hauling tractor trailers, according to Jeff Badgley, a spokesman for the Tennessee-based business.

However, Craner’s more modest-sized display--complete with a car door that he locked and picked for hours--seemed to draw the most consistent stream of onlookers. Craner said he looks upon the venture as a service to the towing industry.

“I was sick and tired of towers going out there and tearing up people’s cars,” he said when asked why he designed the door-opening tools.