Tow truck that launched Colorado man's forest cleanup campaign pulled off mountain

A red tow truck that became one of the first symbols of an effort to remove abandoned vehicles from Colorado's backcountry has itself been removed from the side of a mountain.

Chris Fey, the owner of Milo's Towing and Recovery, recently posted on social media that the tow truck was hauled home Tuesday from the steep slope of Mount Pisgah. 

Fey's tow truck was left on the mountain for 11 months. It became a target earlier this spring. 

That's when another tow truck driver, Zac Beaman of Spartan Towing and Recovery, used the wrecked wrecker to highlight the problem of abandoned vehicles littering the state's wilderness. 

Fey's tow truck became the subject of scorn and ridicule. But he never meant to abandon it.

"That was never ever my intention," Fey wrote in his social media post. "That is why my logos and phone number, the license plates and VIN number were still on it. I never ever wanted to leave my truck up there. The plan was always to remove it."

Fey went on to explain that an employee responded to a call on September 29, 2025, to retrieve another truck that slid off Hamlin Gulch Road north of Dumont. It had snowed that morning, and the tow truck, too, began to slide off the soft downhill side of the trail. As the employee walked a cable from the tow truck's winch to a nearby tree, hoping to anchor to it and begin pulling the tow truck back onto a stable surface, more of the road gave way. The tow truck tumbled down the slope, badly damaged. 

Fey left it there for the winter. 

When the snow melted, Beaman "decided to make a post bashing on me and honestly it made me very sad about what came out of the Colorado 4x4 community," Frey wrote. "I had so many hate calls, bad reviews, and yes death threats made to me and my family members and only about 3 people who wanted to offer help, and not one person asking if the driver was ok or even alive. It was extremely sad, honestly."

The two men spoke briefly in May about combining their efforts to recover the tow truck, but couldn't agree on the equipment needed or a cost to upgrade. 

Frey built another tow truck in that time and used it to pull the red tow truck closer to the road in May. But the truck's rear axle snapped in half during the process, he stated, making it impossible to move further. He returned later to repair the axle and then, last week, successfully recovered it. 

"We were finally able to hook onto it and pull it out the rest of the way and bring it home," Frey wrote. "It took 2 4x4 1-ton wreckers to complete this task, and it was successful without any problems and nobody getting hurt, and honestly couldn't have been done without all of my amazing family and friends. They made everything possible, and I will never be able to thank them enough for what they did."

The tow truck's removal didn't resolve the frosty relations between the two men. Frey told CBS Colorado he is very happy to finally put the situation behind him. 

Beaman said he and Frey certainly are not friends. But he expressed gratitude toward him.

"Honestly, I'm going to give him a 'hats off'. It helped me really start what I'm doing now," Beaman stated.

Beaman launched a personal effort to rid Colorado's backcountry of abandoned vehicles. He used Frey's red tow truck as one of the most visible representations of the problem. He started removing abandoned vehicles himself, the task of organizing and coordinating with property owners being the hardest part of the undertaking.  

Since then, a small movement has begun. 

Following a CBS Colorado profile that aired earlier this month, Beaman has been contacted by government agencies such as the U.S. Forest Service and Colorado Parks and Wildlife, as well as utility companies and the non-profit Keep Colorado Beautiful, for further work. He said too many people suffer from the Bystander Effect and assume abandoned vehicles are being taken care of. But after seeing enough of them, he wasn't willing to ignore abandoned vehicles in beautiful terrain.

"There's a lot of people that call me a 'Forest Karen,'" Beaman mused. "But it's a level of caring that a lot of people should have." 

It's charity work. Beaman said he uses his personal vehicle (yes, a tow truck) and not his work trucks. 

Beaman agreed to take down the initial social media post about Frey's red tow truck after hearing about the backlash he was suffering. He called that an unfortunate trait of social media. 

But he doesn't regret using Frey's bright red rig for publicity, and is glad it no longer lingers where it sat.

"I'm glad he got it out. That's all that matters," Beaman said. "That's more satisfying than anything. It was in a tough spot, too. He did a good job of getting it out."