When Your Car Gets Towed on Christmas Morning

January 5, 2024

When Your Car Gets Towed on Christmas Morning

It wasn’t Santa Claus causing commotion in the sleepy townhouse community where our daughter, husband, and granddaughter live. But what happens when a local tow truck operator—maybe cruising for a little extra cash—comes ruining your sleep and sanity on Christmas morning?

Ok, the story. We were visiting overnight on Christmas Eve and our daughter had carefully made sure we parked in their designated space with our slim Toyota, while she used a guest space. We were suddenly awakened on Christmas morning about 5:30 a.m. with our daughter knocking on the bedroom door (where we’d been sleeping). Then she dashed in, citing some emergency outside. An accident? A fire? A robber?

“I need to get some papers,” she quietly explained, hoping desperately their 10-month-old daughter wouldn’t wake up. She dipped hurriedly into her well-organized file cabinet and then dashed out again, clothed only in pjs and slippers. This was December of course. What was going on?

When she returned, she said she had been awakened by flashing truck lights backing up in front of our parking space and shining into their bedroom window. Alarmed, she had rushed out just as she saw the tow truck—and our car—going around the corner and heading out to the street. She kept running and then saw the driver had stopped, maybe to make a call or whatever. Relieved to catch up, she knocked on his window and asked why he was towing the car that had been correctly parked in her parking space.

Ah, but it had no parking pass in it, the operator explained. He was to remove anything that didn’t have a pass. (Home Owner Association rules of course.) Our daughter was distraught and showed him her paperwork proving they were owners of the townhouse with rights to the parking space.

So he unloaded our car and said she owed him $50.

At which she was relieved and luckily had $50 in cash (in the house) to pay him. As she began to mentally process the near mess it would have been to get our car out of an impound lot—likely locked up solid for the Christmas holiday—she began to breathe easier. We had planned to drive the 120 miles back home later in the day. Our Christmas Day was “saved.”

It reminded me of the mess I found myself in about 15 years ago at a senior citizen complex doing filming in New York City with work colleagues. We had parked our van on a busy street which was clearly marked that vehicles had to be moved from that side of the street when the commuters-going-home rush started at about 4 p.m. As my colleagues packed up their boxes etc. with cameras and filming paraphernalia, I told them I’d go get the van before it got towed. It wasn’t quite 4 p.m. and in my rural head, I was sure it would still be sitting there.

But it was nowhere to be seen. Long story short, with guidance from a bored building greeter, I tracked down the van’s location in an impound lot close to Pier 76 on the Hudson River. Inside the building it looked like there should be mafia guys hiding around every corner. But when the clerk finally gave me a pass with our company information on it marked “Redeemed,” it felt like God was watching out for us that day. 

I had to think of that as our daughter doled out a $50 bill she just happened to have on hand (no one under 60 uses cash anymore, right?).

Our Christmas in the suburbs was not ruined. Hallelujah!

And that New York impound lot? I just learned it has been moved and now contains a nice riverside park.

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Impound lot stories? Were you ever towed against your will?

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I’m no longer writing my newspaper column but as my husband AND daughter noted, “Everything is an article (now blog post) with our mother isn’t it?” 🙂 But no deadlines! No regular posts! Although right now I’m writing devotionals for a week of Rejoice! magazine devos, which is a good exercise (and pays decent). Find the magazine here.

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