San Francisco Supervisor Wants To Lessen The Pain For Victims Of Car Theft
SAN FRANCISCO (KCBS)— A San Francisco Supervisor is hoping to lessen the pain for people who get their cars stolen and then have to pay towing and storage fees if the car is found.
Car theft isn't all that uncommon in San Francisco. Thousands of vehicles a year are stolen off of city streets. For the 2,000 a year found and towed to Auto Return, the city's towing contractor, they are faced with the added insult to injury of fees starting at $500 to retrieve their own car.
"We have situations where people end up not even bothering to reclaim their cars because towing and storage fees are higher than the value of the car, so at that point the car gets auctioned off," said Supervisor Scott Wiener.
The towing company's contract is up for renewal next year and Wiener wants any new one to provide fairness for the victims.
"We need to give owners of stolen vehicles a much longer period of time to retrieve their vehicles without having to pay any towing or storage costs. Any cost assessed should be reduced," he said.
Wiener is calling for a hearing to get ahead of the contract negotiations.
As it stands, owners of stolen cars are only given a couple hours to pick up their car before the charges kick in.