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Uploaded: Thursday, July 3, 2008, 4:17 PM
No car, no recourse
Vacationer returns to find his car towed, auctioned and up for sale on Craigslist -- by a tow company employee
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by Daniel DeBolt
Mountain View Voice Staff
Photo
 | When Vaibhav Chopda returned from a six-week trip to India last month, his car was missing from where he thought it was safely parked in his apartment complex. As he soon found out, it hadn't been stolen -- though he may have wished it had been.
Chopda, a 26-year-old Cisco engineer, had been mailed notices at home about his car while he was away on the long trip. Though he had paid his registration, he was, in his own words, "a little lazy" about putting the new tags on. Even though his 2004 Honda Civic was parked in the apartment's lot, it was towed for having expired registration tags.
But what happened next was even more shocking. The day he returned, June 9, was the same day his car was sold by a Santa Clara-based towing service, Auto Ambulance, at "auction" for $2,280. The Kelly Blue Book values Chopda's Honda at over $10,000.
"You're not going to get your car back," is what he vividly remembers the tow company telling him. He wouldn't be getting his dash-mounted GPS navigation system or his cricket equipment back either.
He later found his car for sale on Craigslist -- apparently still at the same tow yard and being flipped by an Auto Ambulance employee -- for $8,500.
Tow services have the right to recoup storage and towing expenses by selling cars at auction, but Chopda believes Auto Ambulance handled the auction illegally. Under the California vehicle code, a tow company must jump through several hoops before a car valued over $4,000 can be sold at auction, a procedure which could have provided at least 90 days for Chopda to retrieve his car.
But for cars valued at under $4,000, tow companies can follow a different set of rules which expedite the sale of cars. As documents provided by Chopda to the Voice show, Auto Ambulance valued Chopda's Honda at less than $4,000, even though its Blue Book value is more than $10,000.
Auto Ambulance refused to comment for this story.
"Sounds like maybe something weird is going on," said Danny Fortes, owner of Mountain View Towing, about the resale of the car. "Tow companies just have to be careful. If it's on the borderline we put it [the car's value] over $4,000 just to cover ourselves."
Marcus Ball, manager of the Park Plaza apartment complex on Crisanto Avenue near Rengstorff Park, where Chopda lives, said management had no idea the car belonged to Chopda. His management company had recently taken over the complex, and hadn't heard from Chopda about which cars were his. The parking permit Chopda had on his car was not up to date, Ball said.
Ball added that he felt sorry for the tenant. "When I heard about that I was sick to my stomach for three days," he said.
There was no monetary incentive for the complex to tow the car, Ball said. In fact, he said, "I shy away from towing cars" because he's had his own car's tires slashed by tenants in retaliation.
"Every time I tow a car I park somewhere else because it's not safe," he said.
With scarce parking and people leaving cars behind at the complex, some cars have to go, he said, and Chopda's qualified for towing because of its expired tags.
Ball said management didn't think twice about the car's value because non-citizens have been known to leave newer cars, and their car payments, behind when in a hurry to return to their home countries.
Chopda said he's currently seeking an affordable lawyer to take the case to court or seek the $7,500 maximum from small claims court for damages. Are you receiving Express, our free daily e-mail edition? See a sample and sign-up for Express.
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Posted by Enough!, a resident of the Old Mountain View neighborhood, on Jul 4, 2008 at 12:32 am The guy's to blame for his own stupidity. He should of put the tags on his car. He probably doesn't pay his insurnace on time either, so when he gets into an accident, the other person is out of luck. A tough lesson to learn, but we can all learn from it.
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Posted by Laughing!!!, a resident of the Rex Manor neighborhood, on Jul 4, 2008 at 10:38 am I agree with Enough!(CAN'T BELIEVE I AM WRITING THAT!) The guy should quit his whining!!! He should of put the tags on his car and told management he was going on a trip(especially for that length of time..did he forget to pay his rent,too? Because he felt his car was "stolen", the Mercury news said he had to borrow money from friends to buy a new 2008 car...he works, why couldn't he get a loan or a less newer car. He could afford to go "home" to India for 6 weeks. Learn to play by the rules(laws) in this country or lose your car!!! Lucky tow company employee...buying a cheap car-makes up for making minimum wage.
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Posted by CorruptTower, a resident of the Shoreline West neighborhood, on Jul 4, 2008 at 1:20 pm It sounds like Auto Ambulance is liable here because the car was clearly worth more than $4K and they did not wait long enough to sell it. He should be able to sue them successfully on this basis. I don't know what the legal definition of stealing is but selling something that is not yours and you are not legally allowed to sell sounds like stealing to me. Also it sounds like AA has a serious lack of integrity if the information in the article is correct.
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Posted by concerned citizen, a resident of another community, on Jul 4, 2008 at 4:55 pm reguardless of whether the owner was right or wrong about not having his stickers on the car is besides the point
california lien sale laws CLEARLY state that ANY car or truck over the value of $4000 has to have a 90 day lien sale done,and that has to be filed with the DMV,,,and then the DMV has to authorize the lien sale as well before the tow company can go forward with the sale,,also with the 90 day lien sale,the DMV also contacts any part of interst,lien holder registered owner,interested parties etc,not just the tow company with certified mailings
filing lien papers with intent to show value of $4000 or less when car has a clear value of over $4000 is an attempt to defraud to obtain property by means of deception
also...
if car was for sale with lisc plates still on car,that is illegal,as tow company by law has to remove them time of lien sale
employee who bought car for purpose of reselling must have a valid resale lisc to sell car,as it is illegal to "curbstone" a car in california
employee must put car in his or her own name to resell the car
if tow company had an outside lien sale service do the lien sale,they would be liable as well for letting this lien sale go thru without questioning it
tow company said car was sold that morning at auction
all cars on lien BY LAW had to have info posted that car was comming up for auction by date,time and vin # posted at tow company in plain view
oh and another thing,,,,another article said tow company didnt know who bought it,,,trust me,they photo copy ALL DRIVERS LISC from anyone who buys cars from them!!!.....i know....i have bought from them!
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Posted by Jim Thurber, a resident of the Shoreline West neighborhood, on Jul 5, 2008 at 6:33 pm Many towing companies operate on the very gray side of the law. Any police officer could have told the towing company OR the apartment manager instantly a) if the car was legally registered and b) who it was registered to.
In this case my prediction is that court will find for the owner and split the damages between the towing company and apartment management company. The concept of treble damages should also be considered and if the defendents are smart they will do everything in their power to settle - now!
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Posted by Resident, a resident of another community, on Jul 5, 2008 at 7:36 pm Now we are talking about grey areas. When we were living in a complex we had to give the owner of the complex the licence number of our vehicle and we were only allowed to park in our designated place. But, that place was ours and we could park anything there as long as they knew from the plates.
Given that the tags on cars are for road use, if a car is off road for 6 weeks, it may make sense not to pay for the licence for that time. After all, if you are not using the car for that time, why pay for the tags til you get back. In this particular case, the licence was paid and anyone who checked with DMV would have been able to discover that, and displaying the tags is for road use not for parking use in official spots. After all, it was not abandoned at the side of the road and presumably the owner had been paying his rent for his apartment during that time which also meant that he had paid for the use of his parking space.
I feel sorry for the guy and feel that he should have been treated better by his landlord. So what if the tags weren't on, he had the lawful right of his apartment and presumably the legal right to his parking spot.
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Posted by guy who lives in Mountain View, a resident of the Cuesta Park neighborhood, on Jul 10, 2008 at 4:10 pm Web Link
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Posted by guy who lives in Mountain View, a resident of the Cuesta Park neighborhood, on Jul 10, 2008 at 4:11 pm Look into the city code
Web Link
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Posted by Sue The Pants Off These Bums, a resident of the North Whisman neighborhood, on Jul 21, 2008 at 9:42 pm Towing companies are right up there with new-car dealers: Blood-sucking scum of the earth!
Sue 'em morning, noon and night for everything they are worth - and then some!
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