FLORIDA -- A Delray Beach firefighter ran into trouble Thursday night when he tried to remove a boot that a tow company put on his girlfriend's car.

Michael David McCleary, 43, of Boynton Beach, called police to complain that his girlfriend's car had been improperly booted while parked in the 200 block of Northeast Second Avenue, according to the police report.

McCleary told police there were no signs indicating they couldn't park in the lot.

Upon arrival, police saw McCleary trying to remove the boot with a scissor jack. Police showed McCleary the "No Parking" signs in the lot, and McCleary agreed to pay the fine to have the boot removed.

During his struggle to remove the boot, though, McCleary damaged it, according to the police report.

McCleary and the tow company are resolving the matter privately. (SunSentinel.com)

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TEXAS -- Who's in charge of regulating the highways in the city of Houston? Texas Sen. Mario Gallegos says the state is.

"Depending on what council does, I would structure legislation where they could not do any rule-making authority on interstate freeways involving tow trucks," Sen. Gallegos says.

He says he has received complaints about a city towing ordinance from both tow truck operators and motorists.

“If Aunt Mary breaks down on the west side in somebody's region and she's on a fixed income, does she get to keep her car and sign a voucher and say ‘I'll pay you when I get my social security check.’ We don't know that,” Sen. Gallegos says.

Tow truck vs. city battle continues

Melissa Blasius talks with Sen. Mario Gallegos about the proposed tow truck ordinance.

The city's tow truck rules, set to take effect in January, would split Houston highways into sections and create exclusive towing contracts.

Backers of the tow truck ordinance say the plan is still being fine-tuned.

"We are going to take into account the points he's made. They are valid points and we are going to have an ordinance that's good at the end of the day,” Councilman Michael Berry.

And there are bound to be more bumps in the road for this plan -- a plan intended to create faster, safer travel on the highways.

City Council will decide later on the exact bidding process for wrecker services, as well as payment options for disabled motorists. (Melissa Blasius - News24)

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WEST VIRGINIA -- While transporting a logging truck, a Fleet Service Co. tow truck struck a utility pole and then crashed into Grubros' 29th Street Grill in Wheeling on Friday, according to witnesses at the scene.

Witnesses also said the vehicles nearly crashed into a nearby yard sale.
Following the incident, tire tread marks were visible from near Pizza Villa, located at 236-1/2 29th St., to where the trucks landed on their sides after crashing through the wall of Grubros' 29th Street Grill, located at 222 29th St.

Wheeling Police and local emergency crews cleaned a gasoline spill that ran down the street about a block. Officers at the scene said it was too early to tell how the chain of events occurred. They said 29th Street would be closed temporarily.

A few residents at the scene said before the accident occurred, they witnessed the tow truck and its load travel on 29th Street hill toward the grill. Debbie Hoskinson of 229 29th St. said she saw the truck and believed it had lost its brakes, causing it to roll out of control. She said the truck drove onto a sidewalk where her family was having a yard sale. The truck nearly struck her daughter, she said.

The truck "came off the hill fast, lost brakes, hit the pole and ran into the bar," Hoskinson said. "They almost hit my daughter."

Rusty Jebbia, the city public works director, said he was driving behind the trucks prior to the accident. He said he was not sure what happened, but he watched the men get out of the truck.

"I'm not really sure what happened," Jebbia said. "A tow truck for a logging truck jumped the sidewalk and hit the pole. It went into the bar and rolled on its side. I got on the radio and watched it, to see if the driver and passenger got out. They just missed the sidewalk sale."

Other residents of 29th Street said they heard a crash, their lights flickered and they ran outside to see what had happened.

The men involved in the accident reportedly were transported to Wheeling Hospital. The extent of their injuries is not known. No bystanders were injured in the accident. Further information was not available from police at press time. (Michelle Ganassi -Wheeling News-Register)

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KENTUCKY -- Witnesses say they just don't understand how the truck driver took a car with a baby inside. The baby is safe but people who saw it happen are still in disbelief.

It was around 5:30 Saturday afternoon at Walnut Hill Apartments in Lexington. Witnesses say a man left his baby in the backseat of a car while he ran into his apartment. Before he could get back, a tow truck pulled up.

“The tow truck man came around and towed the car, and obviously if I could see, then everybody else could see that the child was in the car,” says Shalanda Thomas, who saw the event unfold.

George Michael Winchester works for Winchester’s Towing. He said the car was double parked and didn’t have a permit – and he never saw a baby.

“When I looked into the mirror and I looked in the window when I got up to the car, I didn’t see the kid in there. Half the car seat was empty. I assumed the car seat was empty,” says Winchester.

Winchester says he drove for 30 minutes until he received a call from his company, telling him that a child was inside a car.

“They called me and in six to eight minutes, I made it back here.”

Winchester says no one told him a child was inside while he was towing the car.

The tow truck driver, Michael Winchester, is charged with endangering the welfare of a minor. The baby's father, Clinton John, is charged with violation of the city ordinance of leaving a child unattended in a vehicle. (WKYT)

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INDIANA -- Drivers whose cars are towed inside the Hammond city limits can expect to pay more to get their vehicles back.

The City Council approved an ordinance last week that will establish a $20 fee for each car towed. The fee would be added to the towing companies' existing charges, and drivers would pay the fee when they go to retrieve their vehicles.

The ordinance has yet to be signed by the mayor, but he is expected to do so soon.

Police said the ordinance, sponsored by Councilwoman JoAnn Matonovich, D-at large, would defray costs associated with towing cars.

The rates charged by the towing companies vary depending on the type of tow needed.

The department, which towed 9,100 cars in 2003, spends thousands of dollars on paperwork, personnel and auction costs, said Lt. Richard Hoyda, a police spokesman.

Similar towing fees have been established recently in communities including Valparaiso and Merrillville,

Police Chief Brian Miller told the council that the ordinance might generate $150,000 between now and the end of the year. The money will go to a newly created police equipment fund.

"The funds are being allocated for police equipment, and obviously we have a need for squad cars and parts and repairs and (everything) associated with that," Hoyda said.

But the allocation of the towing fee revenue drew criticism from Councilman Robert Markovich, D-at large. He said the money should come to the general fund and be distributed by the council to hold police accountable for their expenditures.

Markovich also said the city could cut down on fuel costs -- one expense the new fund is expected to help pay for -- by recalling the estimated 45 squad cars that officers who live outside the city take home.

Hoyda said that issue is unrelated to the new fee.

"We're talking about take-home cars vs. a towing fee ... I think that's a separate issue," he said. (Casey Newton - nwitimes.com)

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MISSOURI -- As a newcomer to the towing business five years ago, Theresa Miner contracted with as many motor clubs as she could to jump-start her company, Miner's Towing in Fenton.

Rising gasoline costs are squeezing the profit margins of St. Louis-area tow-truck operators who help stranded motorists at the request of auto clubs. The tow-truck operators argue that gasoline-price increases and other rising costs mean they are, in effect, being underpaid by the motoring clubs with which they have contracts.

"Motor clubs that I have been with nearly five years do not return my e-mails or phone calls for a rate adjustment on the contract," Miner said. "But they do continue to call me when they need service."

Auto-club spokespeople said their clubs pay competitive fees to towing operators, with the marketplace largely determining the prices paid.

Brendan McMullen, a dispatcher at M&M Towing, said his company stopped doing business with motor clubs six years ago.

He said AAA offered the best compensation to its towing contractors. Other motor clubs often don't pay so well, he said.

Cross Country Automotive Services, based in Boston, hasn't adjusted its reimbursement rates to reflect higher gas prices, but the club pays fairly, spokeswoman Kathleen Cavolina said.

"There is not only one rate, because we negotiate and work with individual towing companies," she said. "Overall, the marketplace sets the rate."

Mike Right, vice president of public affairs at AAA Missouri, said the club pays more to tow companies if fuel prices exceed their benchmark price, which he wouldn't disclose.

Right wouldn't say what AAA Missouri pays its towing vendors because rates vary, depending on such factors as the type of service offered as well as operator training and experience.

Kim Reifch, owner since 1997 of Affordable Towing and Storage, tows for several motor clubs when they are "swamped" with calls for roadside assistance.

Tow operators say motor clubs contract for lower rates than the general public would pay for service. Rising gasoline and other costs mean today's reimbursement rates might cover some costs but allow for little, or no, profit.

For example, Reifch's company charges the public $55 for hooking up a disabled vehicle and $2 a mile for towing. By comparison, Signature's Nationwide Auto Club Inc. of Schaumburg, Ill., pays Reifch $27 for each hookup, requires five free miles of towing and then pays $2.25 a mile. After being with Signature's Nationwide Auto for seven years, she said, its hookup rates went up to $27 from $19.

Signature's spokesman, Matt Brennan, said his club pays market rates.

"We don't tell (towing operators) what their service is worth and don't force them to work in certain areas," he said.

Brennan said the contracts he has with towing operators prohibit disclosing the rates it pays each company.

Reifch said tow operators often contract with motor clubs in the hope of gaining future direct business from people they tow on behalf of clubs.

Miner said motor clubs expect towing operators to use special, expensive equipment to tow cars; they also expect that such equipment will not damage vehicles.

Insurance costs for tow-truck drivers has increased 30 percent in the last four years. Truck insurance has gone up 20 percent to 25 percent during that period, Miner said.

According to the AAA's Web site, the national average price for a gallon of regular gasoline rose to $2.03 in June, from $1.49 a year ago. In Missouri, motorists paid an average of $1.87 a gallon for regular this month, up from $1.44 in June 2003.

John Reasor, president of the Towing and Recovery Operators of Missouri and the owner of Cardinal Towing, said that though 40 percent of towing in the St. Louis area is done by about 10 major companies, startup companies that are willing to tow at low rates drive the market price.

"If there is someone willing to go out and tow for $10, motor clubs will keep those rates," he said.

Reasor, who has owned Cardinal for 15 years, said the motor-club business is attractive because clubs offer towing companies incentives, such as financing trucks that could cost as much as $80,000, in addition to providing a steady flow of business.

Startup companies that rely on motor-club business often can't survive without it, he said. "The downfall for the towing industry is operators not knowing how to manage their business," Reasor said.

Reasor said he understands that the motor clubs are in a "tough spot" because they have to compete against one another and keep qualified vendors, but towing operators are "way underpaid," he said.

An ideal rate for operators is difficult to determine because several factors play a part in towing costs, but a rate of $45 to $60 for hookup and $2 to $4 a mile would be a good average reimbursement, Reasor said. (Tina Shah - The Post-Dispatch)

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MISSISSIPPI -- Allen "Kerry" Noble of Saucier loved antique cars and spent much of his spare time refurbishing them for his twin sons, Dillon and Brennen.

A devoted family man, Noble had built a 1956 Fiat for his 12-year-old boys and attended several car shows along the Coast with them and his wife, Mary.

Friday, he was working on one of his two 1936 Packards, the blue one, when the jack slipped and the car fell on his chest, suffocating him. He was 48.

Members of the Singing River Street Rod Club spent Saturday consoling Noble's family and giving them car memorabilia to put in his casket. Noble, owner of Noble Bros. Towing, was a former member of the organization.

Members of the organization will honor Noble with the tradition of driving their cars in Tuesday's funeral procession.

"He was always interested in older cars," Mary Noble said. "He would tinker around with them, get tired of them and sell them."

She said he enjoyed participating in Cruisin' the Coast, built several cars and old trucks and won awards for his talent.

In addition to his passion for antique cars, Noble loved fishing with his boys. The family recently bought a boat but used it only six or seven times.

"He was a great father and a great husband," she said. (The Sun Herald)

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NEW YORK -- Mayor Bloomberg and the New York City Council have both approved a much needed price increase for the city's towing operators.

The current towing fee of $50 will go up $70, and the daily storage rate of $15 will increase to $20. Towing mileage will be $4 per mile after 1.

The changes will take effect on Labor Day.

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CALIFORNIA -- A 34-year-old tow truck driver was fatally shot Monday while unloading a disabled vehicle he had just towed for it's owner to Oakland’s Trestle Glen neighborhood.

The driver who worked for Micki's Towing had just picked up the disabled vehicle from I-580 and was unloading the vehicle at a service station on Lakeshore Avenue when a person walked up and opened fire.

The tow truck driver was transported to the hospital where he later died.

Police say they have no leads in the shooting.

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MICHIGAN -- Ford Motor Co. is preparing for production of its latest F-Series Super Duty pickup, one of the automaker's most profitable vehicles.

Ford showed versions of the 2005 Super Duty to automotive journalists for the first time Friday. The large trucks are part of Ford's best-selling F-Series lineup, which accounts for about 900,000 sales annually, or roughly one-quarter of Ford's total volume.

The 2005 Super Duty, which goes into production this summer in Louisville, will have a stronger frame, more powerful engine options and increased towing and payload capabilities.

"This truck is all about capability and control," said Susan Dehne, the Super Duty's chief engineer. "Knowing 90 percent of our customers tow trailers, towing had to be a priority in our improvements."

Ford's Super Duty lineup includes the F-250, F-350, F-450 and F-550 trucks. Ford began selling an all-new version of its smaller F-150 pickup in September.

Through April, F-Series sales were up 10.6 percent over the same period last year, according to Autodata Corp. The trucks contributed heavily to Ford's $1.9 billion first-quarter profit, which handily topped Wall Street estimates.

The new Super Duty trucks are scheduled to hit showrooms this fall. Their prices range from $22,400 to $44,000, Ford officials said.

The Super Duty trucks compete against heavy-duty models from Dodge, Chevrolet and GMC.

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CALIFORNIA -- Bertha De Leon had been towing cars in Coachella for 30 years when she took 5½ years off to take care of her husband Joe.

When Joe passed away March 31, the 67-year-old De Leon could only think of one thing he’d want her to do -- so she dusted off her one-ton tow truck bearing the name Joe De Leon’s Towing and went back into business full time.

De Leon held out her powerful hands to show that she does the towing herself. Standing five feet and not much, the thin woman with streaks of gray in her hair said she works seven days a week, towing cars whenever she gets a call. She says she’s not scared of hard work.

"I love meeting the people, and I love to drive," said De Leon.

De Leon moved to Coachella with her family in 1957, following her brother who had moved the previous year. Her brother had become best friends with Joe De Leon, and Bertha fell in love with him. They were married in 1958.

The couple opened a gas station and mechanic’s garage in 1963, and a few years later started to offer towing services.

In 1983, the De Leons turned their business exclusively into a towing operation. Companies such as Goodyear had moved into the valley and were undercutting smaller businesses’ prices on items like tires and car batteries, where the De Leon’s made a good portion of their profit.

Joe DeLeon suffered a stroke in 1998, leaving him unable to continue working, and Bertha stayed with him at home until his death.

"Money is important, but Joe and I, we were married for 45 years … and I just decided that I was going to take care of him," De Leon said.

When De Leon restarted the business last month, she had to start out with only one truck because she had sold most of the company’s equipment when her husband fell ill.

"I had beautiful trucks, when my husband got ill, I made a deal with another towing company," she said. "We had a verbal agreement, but the man didn’t pay me everything."

De Leon said she never took any action against the buyer. She’s a religious woman and prefers to believe that he’ll face the consequences for his actions later in life.

Meanwhile, De Leon is hoping to keep towing for as long as she can.

"I want to continue, it’s going to take a while because I have some financial problems, but I know that I can continue," she said.

Business has been slow since she hit the road again. Last week, De Leon got three calls from stranded motorists and handful of calls to haul away abandoned cars. But she thinks that once people realize she’s back, the calls will start coming again.

De Leon is looking forward to more than restarting her business, however.

"When I have my business established the way I want it, my first trip would be to France," she said.

A few years ago, she was called to tow a young French woman whose car had broken down while traveling through Southern California. The woman stayed a few days at De Leon’s house while her transmission was being repaired.

Every year since then, De Leon gets a Christmas card, always asking when the two will be reunited on the other side of the Atlantic. (Jonathan D. Colburn - The Desert Sun)

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NEW JERSEY -- A towing company employee was killed Thursday morning when a bus damaged in a Memorial Day crash fell on him as he was preparing to tow it.

Franklin DeLarosa, 38, of Belleville, worked for Tumino's Towing in Ridgefield Park, authorities said. He had arrived at All Hours Towing in Jackson earlier in the day and was due to take the bus from the lot to a body shop in Secaucus.

An unidentified All Hours Towing worker found the body around 10 a.m. after noticing that DeLarosa had been underneath the bus for about an hour. Thinking DeLarosa might need help with his work, the man approached him and soon realized that he had been crushed by the bus.

The man then called 911, and DeLarosa was pronounced dead at the scene around 10:15 a.m.

Authorities believe DeLarosa was trying to secure the bus onto his tow truck when the bus became dislodged from the truck's supports. The cause of the accident remains under investigation.

The bus had been damaged when it crashed into trees off the Garden State Parkway in Berkeley Township on Monday. It had been stored since then at the All Hours Towing facility. (AP)

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ILLINOIS -- Frustrated by rising costs and stagnant towing fees, tow truck operators are meeting with AAA Chicago Motor Club officials today and some are threatening mutiny.

Up to 70 independent tow truck operators who do work for the auto club are gathering at its Aurora headquarters and calling for a raise in tow rates of up to 50 percent.

"Everyone I've talked to has pretty much said that if nothing is done, they will stop towing (for AAA Chicago)," said Bryan Matthei, manager of Golf & Busse Towing in Mount Prospect. "And then AAA won't know what to do with themselves."

AAA Chicago on Wednesday said its rates are competitive and come with extra benefits, such as generating AAA membership business.

"Contractors requested a meeting and we agreed right away," said Nicole Niemi, spokeswoman for AAA Chicago. "We're looking forward to an open dialogue."

Activists said no widespread disruption of tow service is likely soon, but they contend industry pressures are already affecting service.

"If someone doesn't do something soon, we are going to see highways littered with (disabled) cars," said Bill Parks, president of the Professional Towing and Recovery Operators of Illinois, a Pekin-based industry association.

At Pete's A-Towing in East Dundee, owner Pete Bernaeyge estimates he loses $8 on the average AAA Chicago towing call.

Bernaeyge said he can only afford losing money on the calls by charging more for non-auto club service calls. AAA Chicago on average pays him $23 a tow, he said, but on average he charges non-club drivers $58. He said he has stayed with the club thus far because it generates business during down times.

However, motor clubs such as AAA Chicago are only part of the reason tow truck operators are being squeezed out of the business, Park said.

Rising truck prices, insurance premiums, health care costs, diesel fuel prices, state license plate fees and legal settlements are proving to be a toxic mix for the industry.

Insurance at Pete's A-Towing tops $100,000 annually, according to Bernaeyge. His diesel costs are up 25 percent this year alone. License plate fees for tow trucks can cost $600 to $4,000 per plate.

From a safety point of view, low tow rates makes the training of drivers harder to afford. Training is key to reducing secondary accidents, occurring after the initial accident, Parks said. Secondary accidents, which can occur as a tow is under way, account for about a third of all accidents in St. Louis and other large cities, he said.

And low motor club rates mean tow trucks often respond to non-club club calls first, sometimes leaving club members stranded longer, operators said. And the longer the wait time, the longer the gapers block traffic jam, said Parks, whose Joliet-based Transport Towing has already dropped all motor club business.

However, any rate increase is likely to eventually get passed along to motor club members.

In the meantime, AAA Chicago's fee schedule means every service call Matthei's trucks make either loses money or breaks even. He said he'd like to see his base AAA Chicago rate of $23 a tow go up to $30 to $35 dollars a tow.

"They (AAA Chicago) need a wake-up call," Matthei said. (Mike Comerford - Chicago's Daily Herald)

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WASHINGTON -- Seattle's city auditor said two local towing companies overcharged and underpaid city government approximately $102,000 in the past five years.

In a report released yesterday, the auditor's officer blamed the city's lack of financial controls for most of the problem, saying a poorly trained city worker "stated she basically approved payment for invoices the vendors sent." That worker was inadequately supervised, auditors added.

GT Towing in West Seattle overcharged the city approximately $73,000 in the past five years, according to the report from City Auditor Susan Cohen. Auditors are confident that amount is accurate, but they cannot be 100 percent sure without more information, which the company has not provided, said Robin Howe, the auditor in charge of the report.

GT Towing "consistently charged inappropriately for Driving While License Suspended impounds, and consistently added inappropriate standby time charges," the report said. The company charged $12 for standby time on every towing, Howe said, and billed the city a $65 fee for every suspended-license tow, even though vehicle owners had often already paid the fee.

GT Towing disputes the allegations and has not repaid the city.

"At this point in time, we know of absolutely no wrongdoing, no overcharging whatsoever," said Duncan Wilson, partner of GT Towing's attorney, who is on medical leave.

Wilson said he could not respond more specifically to allegations because he had not read the auditor's report. In addition, he said his law firm just received city documents supporting the auditor's report and had not yet reviewed them.

In a recent letter to auditors, the director of the city's Department of Executive Administration said billing problems identified in the report have been corrected and the department intends to investigate all billings in recent years to see if contractors made any additional errors.

The city employee who approved payments to GT Towing recently retired, according to Mel McDonald, director of the city's Revenue and Consumer Affairs Division. That former employee's supervisor still works for the city but has received more training, as has the retired employee's replacement, McDonald said.

The auditor's office found no evidence that city employees personally benefited from the towing-payment problems, Howe said.

Auditors also said GT Towing did not let vehicle owners pay for impound charges with bank cards, although state law and the city's contract with tow companies require them to accept the cards. "This situation limits citizens' abilities to redeem their vehicles," the report noted.

Auditors reported other problems:

• Lincoln Towing underpaid the city $29,000 in administrative fees. Auditors said this was triggered by a computer glitch at the company. Lincoln Towing has corrected the problem and remitted $29,000 to the city, according to auditors.

• Citizens who have vehicles towed rarely comply with time-payment programs the city offers. The city has received only 24 percent of the total owed through time payments. Time payments are authorized when the Seattle Municipal Court collects a 20 percent deposit on the amount owed and sets up a schedule for the remaining payments. The city then pays the towing company for the amount of the impound charges. This cost the city almost $46,000 last year in payments to tow companies that were not reimbursed by vehicle owners. "This indicates that citizens only pay about 4 percent beyond the deposit amount," the report said, before the accounts are turned over to a collection agency. The vast majority of the time-payment cases result from suspended-license impounds.

• The city is one year overdue to rebid the towing contract. The contract has been extended for one year three times, which is one year beyond what was called for in the city's 1998 contract. The tow contract divides the city into zones. GT Towing serves West Seattle; Columbia Towing serves Southeast Seattle; and Lincoln Towing covers downtown, central and North Seattle.

Through its contracts with three vendors, the city tows about 30,000 vehicles per year. The main reasons for towing include illegal parking, abandoned vehicles, driving with a suspended license and failure to pay parking tickets.

Parking violations account for the largest percentage of the total volume, according to the report.

The report concerns only towing contracts that three companies have with the city.

Overall, auditors said they found city controls "were adequate for impound operations, policies, programs and vendor services." (Bob Young - Seattle Times)

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WISCONSIN -- Oshkosh Truck Corp. announced Tuesday it will add another company to its portfolio with the acquisition of 100 percent of Jerr-Dan Corp. stock for $80 million.

Jerr-Dan, based in Greencastle, Pa., produces light-, medium- and heavy-duty towing and recovery equipment, steel carriers and industrial carriers.

In a press release, Oshkosh Truck President and CEO Robert G. Bohn said Jerr-Dan is a great fit with Oshkosh Truck.

“Jerr-Dan’s broad product line, expansive distribution network and dedicated employees provide an outstanding foundation for future growth,” Bohn said in the press release.

Oshkosh Truck’s management team expects strong collaborations with the company in the future, noting Jerr-Dan’s developments in the towing industry mirrored Oshkosh Truck’s developments in the concrete industry.

“Oshkosh has delivered more than 2,500 heavy-duty wreckers to the military and Jerr-Dan developed one of the first composite bodies in the towing industry, similar to what Oshkosh has accomplished in the concrete placement industry,” Bohn said in the press release.

Jerr-Dan will operate as a wholly owned subsidiary of Oshkosh Truck and will join the company’s fire and emergency business line once the purchase is completed in July.

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