City residents upset after they say their cars were towed without warning
PITTSBURGH (KDKA) -- Dozens of city residents are upset that their cars were towed over the weekend, they say, without notice.
It happened during events for the National Senior Games that Pittsburgh is hosting this week.
Residents living on Darlington Road say their cars ended up on the hook and they're out hundreds of dollars and they had no notice their cars were going towed.
Katherin Leburn says early Sunday morning, she got what can only be described as a rude awakening.
"I woke up at 4:30 in the morning and heard what I thought were construction vehicles," Leburn said.
It wasn't what she thought.
"I ran down from my apartment to try to see what's going on and they hooked my car up," she said.
Down the street, Chris Zurawsky was facing the same situation.
"Four thirty in the morning, Sunday morning, a big caravan of tow trucks came down the street with a police car and did a sweep and started taking cars," he said.
Both Leburn and Zurawsky say they asked the tow driver to let them move their cars.
"He said, 'no, sorry, it's already hooked up,'" Leburn said.
The city closed the road for the National Senior Games 5K run and while there were flyers posted on cars and even no parking signs, residents say the signs were missing a very important detail.
"There was never an indication of towing being a potential outcome," Zurawsky said.
It's an expensive outcome for those who had to head to the impound lot to get their cars back.
"Almost 300 bucks," Leburn said.
"The towing is 160, the ticket was 117," Zurawsky said.
The city said in a statement:
"This event was permitted by the Office of Film & Event Management, but it is the event organizer, P3R, which notifies residents of the event at least one week in advance of the walk, just as P3R does during the marathon. The no parking signs were clearly posted. Police are on hand to enforce the no parking signs right before event time for the safety of the participants. There were 31 vehicles towed, but only five were cited by police for parking illegally."
For his part, Zurawsky says he hopes if this happens again, the city will give them more notice, including if their cars will be towed.
"It's like they put their hands in my wallet, took the money out with a policeman standing there," Zurawsky said.
Quite a few people KDKA-TV spoke to say they realized they're going to end up eating the towing fee but they plan on challenging the citations in court.