A $337.50 gamble in a tow-away zone

We knew when we left our car in a bank parking lot in Inglewood late Sunday night that we were breaking a rule, if not the law. A trio of signs announced that cars parked in the lot after hours were liable to be towed.

But the line for $5 valet parking at the Dynasty nightclub across the street was long, and there were already half a dozen other cars parked in the Bank of America lot. We were going to dash into the club just long enough to wish a friend happy birthday, have one dance and share a celebratory drink.

Forty-five minutes later we left the club, walked across the street and peered into an empty parking lot. Empty, as in all the cars, including ours, gone. “That’s where we parked, right?” asked Johnny, my beau, looking up and down the street as if he hoped the car might have moved itself while we were inside.

We called the number on the sign and reached LAX Towing. They had the car. We could come pick it up from their lot near the airport. And bring $337.50. In cash.

I know what we did was wrong. We gambled and we lost. It’s not the first time I have been a traffic scofflaw. But who hasn’t played the parking odds -- pulling into the “20 minutes only” spot for a grocery shopping trip that stretches to an hour, taking a space in the flower shop’s lot when you’re next door getting a pedicure.

I was towed once years ago by the LAPD from a busy street outside the Times building when I failed to move my car before the afternoon rush hour. The tab was $100 and change.

How could this mistake cost three times as much?

Well, there was the $125 impound fee to hook our car to a truck. The $55 towing charge, plus $45 for the dolly to haul it. The $45 storage fee for the hour our car was on their lot. The $25 weekend release fee, because it was Sunday night. The $42.50 after-hour gate fee, because a tow truck driver had to come to the lot to unlock the gate and accept our cash.

As consolation, we tried to spin our loss. We’ve blown that much money on a weekend before. Let’s pretend we visited a spa or spent a fabulous night at a fancy hotel. We reminded each other how lucky we were to be near a bank, have an un-maxed-out ATM account and a friend willing to drive us at midnight to the tow yard.

But something about the whole transaction didn’t feel right. I went online to check out local towing laws and found a community of angry California drivers who felt victimized by scamming tow truck drivers.

Twelve years ago, deregulation of the trucking industry removed tow truck companies from local control. So-called bandit companies began springing up, flouting state laws, grabbing cars from streets and parking lots and charging exorbitant rates to desperate drivers who had no recourse but to pay -- or rack up hefty daily storage fees -- if they wanted their cars.

This year, a package of new laws, sought by law enforcement and consumer groups and sponsored by L.A. Democrat Jackie Goldberg before she left the state Assembly last November, brought some order to the industry. Among the new rules:

Companies must take credit cards as payment. Drivers can’t tow a car until it has been improperly parked for one hour. Fees are limited to what tow companies that contract with the city charge.

As better informed tow-ees, Johnny and I returned to LAX Towing on Thursday, looking for “Mike Williams,” the employee who had demanded cash on Sunday and told us the company’s credit card machine was out of order. Instead, we found company CEO Janice Farrow, who expressed surprise when I told her about our encounter.

Of course they take credit cards, she said. They had no “Mike Williams” on their staff. “Are you sure you have the right place?” she asked. We were.

She took a copy of our receipt and said she’d look into it and get back to me.

Just down the street from Inglewood City Hall, a few blocks from where I lost my car, GiGi Berry presides over G.G.’s Restaurant and Bakery and tries to keep her patrons from losing their cars.

The popular restaurant has only a handful of designated parking spaces. Next door is a huge parking lot that belongs to a now-closed Burger King. When I visited, it was virtually empty, but I heeded the tow warning signs this time and parked elsewhere.

G.G.’s customers told me a woman watches from the window of the building next door and calls a tow company whenever cars park improperly in the old Burger King lot.

Berry said she’s had customers who left their cars for a few minutes, picked up a meal to go and found their cars gone as well. Those towed have included doctors from nearby Kaiser Permanente, lawyers from the courthouse, family members gathering after a funeral.

“People come back in here crying; they don’t have enough money and they can’t get their cars,” Berry said. “I try to catch people when they come in the door and tell them don’t park there. But it’s crowded here and there’s nowhere to park. . . . They get mad at us, but we’re caught in the middle. It breaks our hearts.”

Berry said she and her husband have been approached by tow truck drivers from more than one firm offering to pay them $50 per car, or more, if they’ll agree to call a company truck to tow vehicles parked improperly in their designated spots.

Those kickbacks are common practice among rogue towing companies. A deal like that can earn a minimum-wage parking lot attendant a few hundred extra dollars a night -- and yield a couple thousand for a towing company.

“We told them we don’t need to make money that way. It’s not right,” Berry said. “They’re stealing money from people, and it needs to stop.”

I decided not to wait for Farrow and called her back that afternoon. She was polite and professional; she seemed genuinely perplexed by my indignation and my determination to write about this.

She said she had “asked around to the guys in the shop” and found “Mike Williams” was a pseudonym. Tow drivers don’t like to give customers their real names, she said. I wonder why.

Farrow told me the “guys” said they’re allowed to require payment in cash and their fees are in line with what other tow companies charge.

They’re wrong on both counts.

I told my story to LAPD Det. Ben Jones, who investigates towing companies for the Police Commission. He said my experience fits the pattern of a predatory tow company.

Jones said they typically lie in wait and swoop in before enough time has elapsed for a legal tow. They accept only cash, claiming the credit card machine is out of order. They operate without required permits and charge way more than the law allows, he said.

Farrow said she’s been at the helm of LAX Towing since 2005. She’s in the process of applying for an operating permit, which every towing company doing business in Los Angeles was supposed to have by last April.

A crash course in Towing 101 is clearly in order. I directed her to the DMV website, and she promised to check it out. She thanked me and we said goodbye.

I’m not excusing myself in this situation. I ignored the signs and flouted the law because I thought I could get away with it. But if I have to play by the rules, so should the towing company.

Fortunately the new set of laws offers remedies for consumers. Unfortunately, it takes a Small Claims Court lawsuit to recoup financial losses. Or you can complain to the Police Commission, which promises to investigate and refer violators to the city attorney for criminal charges. A report explaining the city’s role and residents’ recourse is available online at www.opgla.com.

“It’s a racket, stranding people like that. . . .” Det. Jones said. “Taking your car and holding it hostage [is] illegal and it’s wrong. They get away with it when people don’t complain.”

I’m considering it an expensive lesson learned: Don’t ignore the no-parking signs. If you do, be prepared to quote chapter and verse from Section 22658 of the state Vehicle Code -- as you hand over a big, fat wad of cash.

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sandy.banks@latimes.com

To share your own towing horror stories and to take your own crash course on the rules regulating towing companies, go to latimes.com/tow.