Stealing Someone's Home Is Perfectly Legal — If You're a Towing Company

A client I'm working with came into my office last week and told me he'd earlier that day been at the phone company trying to pay a bill. When he returned to his vehicle, which is an older model van/camper very similar to the van in the picture on the left here, it wouldn't start. After 30 minutes of diagnostic work, "Jimmy" discovered the distributor cap had a large crack in it.

Jimmy is a disabled Vietnam War veteran who uses a wheelchair to get around and lives on a fixed VA disability income. He sells the local street newspaper, The Contributor, to make ends meet. He recently purchased the camper van because housing costs in the area are so far out of his reach that he'd been relegated to living under a bridge, and the camper van was an ideal answer to his housing dilemma.

Having the motorhome was a huge blessing to him. Not only did it provide him with a safe, secure home and place in which he could finally store some of his valuables, it was also his means of transportation to doctor's appointments, visits to service agencies and general needs around Nashville, a city notoriously unfriendly towards pedestrians, walkers and wheelchair users.

The real problem here is that Jimmy had sent someone to the parts store to get the distributor cap and was awaiting his return when a towing unit arrived on the scene. The technician basically told Jimmy to get out of the vehicle, then hooked it up and drove away with his home.

To make matters exponentially worse, the company is now charging Jimmy the towing fee of $150 dollars, along with an outrageous $30/day "storage" fee.

Because Jimmy won't receive another disability check until September 3rd, the bill at the towing company will be so large that he'll be forced to give up the vehicle.

I ask you, what kind of company would keep an honorably discharged, disabled veteran's home/vehicle and then fee-rape him for storage while the man lives on a fixed income? Worse, what does it say about our community that we cannot provide immediate assistance to someone on a fixed income who has had his vehicle — especially a vehicle that doubles as one's primary residence — towed in the first place?

I can guarantee you that this whole "towing and storage" issue isn't unique to Nashville, Tennessee. Now, I can understand that a given city doesn't want a bunch of abandoned vehicles littering its streets, as many believe it contributes to the "broken windows" crime theory for the city. But with so many of our citizens forced from their homes and living hand to mouth out of their vehicles as a direct result of an economic recession — and I would argue it's more likely going to be ruled a depression at some point — we really need to rethink how we address the towing and storage of vehicles in our cities and towns. I won't hold my breath for this, mind you, but the first part of initiating action is to raise awareness.

And we wonder why people experiencing homelessness sometimes seem cynical....

Photo credit: desomurchu archive gallery