Tow truck shot up on Chicago's North Side belonged to company with many citations
CHICAGO (CBS) – Two men in a tow truck were shot in the middle of the night on the city's North Side. Neighbors ran for cover.
CBS 2 Investigator Megan Hickey went to the scene in the Villa neighborhood and learned the tow truck shouldn't have been on the road in the first place.
She discovered the tow truck company has been cited dozens of times by both the city and the state and is not even licensed to operate in Chicago, as required by a city ordinance.
Surveillance cameras captured the rapid-fire sound of gunshots around 2 a.m.
Chicago police said two men were in the truck in the 3600 block of North Avondale when someone in a dark SUV started firing shots. One man was shot in the stomach and the other suffered a graze wound to the head.
A horrified neighbor said a bullet struck his house and nearly hit his sleeping wife. That shell casing was one of 19 recovered by police.
"I knew that there was a bullet somewhere in the house and found that it was within a foot of my wife's head, where she was sleeping," said Ryan Johns.
The truck shouldn't have been on the road. The state has cited the company, Serious Business Towing, 19 times since December of 2021, mostly for not giving vehicle owners the proper disclosure before the tow.
The City of Chicago has also issued six cease and desist orders to Serious Business that came as a result of 49 citations.
We know the company is also on the radar of Chicago police. Former customer Cheryl Shultz filed a police report last month against Serious Business, which towed her vehicle at the end of November, when the company held her car hostage for three weeks.
"I'm thinking, how do they get away with this, that they're going out towing people's cars illegally when they have all these cease and desist orders on them?" Shultz said.
The company demanded more than $4,000. She went to the police who told her they'd had more issues with the company, but they haven't been able to do anything to arrest them.
Shultz couldn't believe they were licensed to operate. It turned out they're not.
The company has not commented.
As for the two men who were shot, the one struck in the stomach was listed in fair condition. The second man with the graze wound to the head was also listed in fair condition.