Well, here's a story I've been wanting to post for a couple of weeks, but I had to wait to see how it all played out before I spoke about it publicly.
Long story short, I was at my painting lesson at Dean's house on Monday afternoon, July 22nd. I parked at 1:55 in a 2-hour zone, went back to check/move my car at 3:55, and discovered that it had been towed. Luckily, Dean was able to drive me to the tow yard to pick up my car. It cost me $520.75 to retrieve my car, plus there was a $62 parking ticket on my windshield. I asked the person who I paid to get my car what rights I had to contest it. She was very nice and handed me a form with all of the information on how to request a tow hearing. I came home, and made an appt for a hearing within two weeks.
I had parked on 16th Street, in front of the Castro Public Library. Dean and I had first talked with the acting manager at the Library to write a letter acknowledging that a No Parking Sign had not been posted within viewing distance of my car. She told us that she was not allowed to, and would not even give us her name. At further insisting on Dean's part, she did get us the name, phone number and email of the Head of SF Libraries, who Dean spoke with, and to whom I wrote an email with photos, detailing what had happened.
This is the letter that I wrote. In the end, she told me that she was sorry, but that there wasn't anything that she would do (but at least she was nice about it). I ended up bringing the same letter and photos with me to my tow hearing. The person who heard my case was very attentive, and took copies of each photo and of the letter. He said that he would do some investigating, and would see what he could do to help me out.
Here's the letter with accompanying photos:
To whom it may concern,
My car was towed on the afternoon of Monday, July 22, 2013 at the corner of 16th Street and Pond Street in San Francisco. Here is my recollection of the details of the afternoon, as well as some photos that I took to backup my case in contesting the tow.
I parked my car on the Southeast corner of 16th and Pond at approximately 1:55pm. I actually remember making a point to look for street signs to make sure it was okay to park there. There was a Residential S parking sign (I could park for two hours without a residential S permit), as well as a Street Cleaning sign for Thursday from Noon to 2:00pm. (See Photo 1)
Photo 1
I went back out to my car around 3:50pm to discover that it had been towed. I went inside the library to ask the employees for information on what had happened, and how to retrieve my car. They gave me the phone number for the auto return. They explained that there was a library function happening that afternoon and that they required a certain amount of clearance in front of the library on 16th street. When I asked where the sign was, she pointed to two signs posted on the street, but they were very far from where my car had been parked. She acknowledged that a sign that had been posted on the corner near where I was parked was not there. (I spoke to the same employee on Wednesday, July 24th, and she said that she didn't know if a sign had actually been posted in front of where I had parked, or if the string left on the post was from Pride weekend.) Regardless, my car had been towed because it was within 100 feet of the nearest tow-away sign.
My main reason for contesting this ticket/tow is that the closest posted sign was about 50 feet up the block of 16th Street from where I had parked my car. Had a tow sign been posted on the post near where I had parked, (where the strings are shown, but no sign) I surely would not have parked there.
Photo 1 was taken around 4:00pm on Monday. You can see the tow-away sign is about 50 feet ahead, and how it is visible only because all of the cars that had been parked there earlier have been towed away.
Photo 2 was taken Wednesday, July 24th around 1:00pm. This photo shows the same angle as Photo 1, but with parked cars. My car was parked where the black car is in this photo, closest to the camera. You can see here that two cars can fit into this part of the curb, behind the driveway into the Library parking lot. You can also see string on the pole to the right of the black car. IF a tow-away sign had been up on this pole, I certainly would have seen it, and would not have parked there. (I am positive that it was not hanging there at 1:55 when I parked.)
Photo 2
Photo 3 (also taken Wednesday afternoon) shows the perspective closer to the car where I was parked. You can see that with cars parked, it would have been impossible to see the tow away sign posted on the lower part of the pole 50 feet in front of this car.
Photo 3
I'd like to point out that several cars were towed away from the same location where I had originally parked. When I came out to the intersection at 3:50pm, my car, and the car that I had parked behind were both gone. In their place was one silver Prius. I went into the library to ask the employees some questions, then went back to my friend's house whom I was visiting to let him know that I had been towed. We came back to the intersection of Pond and 16th Street around 4:10pm. By this time, the silver Prius was gone, and I witnessed another car pulling into the empty space. I warned the driver that I had been towed from this space that that she would be towed if she parked here. I bring this up to show that the tow-away signs were not posted in an obvious spot, and that several drivers must have assumed that it was okay to park in this space.
Photo 4 (also taken Wednesday afternoon) was taken from across the street. It shows the distance between the black car, parked on the corner of Pond and 16th, and how far ahead the post is that had the nearest tow-away sign on Monday afternoon. I have placed a red circle on the post where the sign had been hung.
Photo 4
After I parked my car on Monday afternoon, I went to visit a friend who lives on Pond street. I did not have any reason to walk along 16th Street, so I did not see the tow-away signs. Even if I had walked up the sidewalk on 16th street, I'm not sure I would have seen the tow-away signs since they are facing the street, and not the sidewalk.
Thank you for your time and consideration in reviewing my case. I plan to contest the towing of my car, and hope to be refunded the $520.75 that I had to pay to have car returned, in addition to the $64 parking ticket that was on my car when it was impounded.
Please let me know if you have any questions. I can be reached via email at trina@trinachow.com, or by phone at 415.552.7181.
Sincerely,
Trina Chow
This is part of the letter that I received in the mail today. It states that I will receive a full refund of the tow and storage charges that I have paid. I also received another letter stating that they are also dismissing the parking citation for $62.00.
Yay!!
I've been towed a ticketed a few times during the 18 years that I've living in San Francisco. This is the first time that I've ever contested one. I'll be the first one to acknowledge when I've done wrong, and count parking tickets and the occasional tow as one of the hazards of living in SF. However, this was the first time that I knew I was wrongly ticketed and towed, and I thought I had a strong case. So glad that I followed up on it.
My thanks to my friend, Dean, for all of this help and support during this saga! Dean was quite upset that this happened at all, but especially because it was in his neighborhood.
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