Bridgeport Car Owners Furious After Police Chief Orders 73 Vehicles Towed Following Devastating Flooding
BRIDGEPORT, Pa. (CBS) -- Car owners in hard-hit Bridgeport are furious after dozens of vehicles were towed away after last week's storm without notice. Now they're told to pay up to get them back.
Neighbors with flooded homes say getting back their cars has become a major headache after their lives were turned upside down last week.
On top of having to replace the walls, carpets, and more inside her Bridgeport house, Minelba Negron also now has to worry about coming up with almost $150 to get back her car that was towed away after last week's storm.
"Our homes are gone, we have nothing," she said. "We're being charged fees out the wazoo to get our property back that should never have been removed in the first place."
A worker from Jamison's Towing in King of Prussia tells Eyewitness News it removed more than 70 vehicles from Bridgeport after the flood.
"They had no permission from any of the people who own the vehicles to remove the vehicles," Negron said.
"I asked and directed that 73 cars be towed and removed from streets," Bridgeport Police Chief Todd Bereda said.
Bereda says to speed up clean-up after the storm, an emergency declaration was signed that allowed the cars to be towed.
"So that we could get emergency vehicles, trash vehicles, remediation vehicles and the vehicles for all the people who needed to come back into the borough to get the work done," Bereda said.
But for those with their homes ravaged by the storm paying a fee to get back their vehicles is hard to swallow.
"I don't even have a place to live," Negron said. "If you want to do something good for the borough and for the community, waive the fees."
"My heart goes out to them. Everyone that's here is a family member in Bridgeport. They're a neighbor. They're not unknown people to us, so I understand that. And that's the difficult thing when trying to make a decision, it's got to be good for the many," Bereda said.
After Eyewitness News reported on the situation, Jamison's Towing said the company will waive the fee to car owners if their insurance doesn't cover it.
If you did have your car towed, the chief says first to call your insurance company to see if they will pay to have your car released.
If they won't cover it and it's tough to pay, people are encouraged to see if Jamison will work with them.
