Tow Company Pulling Away With Cars And Cash, Drivers Say 'What Gives'
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FORT WORTH (CBSDFW.COM) -- A tow truck company has been aggressively targeting shoppers at a Fort Worth store who park next door.
The business and the drivers have accused the tow company of towing illegally.
CBS 11 News' Andrea Lucia witnessed Monday night, a tow truck pulling a car with a man still inside his car.
That driver was Bryan Porter, who himself didn't notice he was being towed while sitting in his car.
"I was looking at my phone. I looked up and that's when he started pulling on the car."
Porter was waiting for his cousin, who was in the Dollar General store and had to jump out so suddenly, he says, his key broke off in the ignition. "He saw me trying to get out. And he was still trying to pull it. He was trying to pull it with you in it? Yes. Have you ever heard of anything like that? No. And I'm not from here. I'm from Arkansas. And I feel very disrespected."
Outside there are no signs that warn drivers their car could be towed.
Dollar General as well as another group owns the property in this area and both confirmed to CBS 11 that they have not given permission to the towing company to tow vehicles off the property.
Porter's not the only one complaining about Black Bull Towing. The tow company nabbed John Henderson's car from the same lot around Christmas 2014. "There was no reason for them to tow this car," explains Henderson. "There were no signs here. I was obviously at a business. It cost me a little more than 300 dollars. Cash."
Another driver says he paid more than a thousand dollars when they towed his 18-wheeler.
When Lakeisha Cooper's car disappeared from the same parking lot two weeks ago she was in distress. "I thought someone had stole my car. I almost started crying." Cooper's husband tried tracking down the owner of the parking lot to get an answer as to why her car was towed.
They received a letter from the property manger confirming neither he nor the owner gave Black Bull permission to tow her car.
"He informed us that they was illegally towing, because they didn't' have a contract to be towing cars under no one's authority," says Cooper's husband Marcus.
No response from Black Bull Towing about these allegations.
CBS 11 found 89 complaints lodged with the state against this towing company.
Police are now investigating what happened during Monday's incident.