A Tucson towing firm accused by critics of seizing parked vehicles for no apparent reason and charging hundreds of dollars to return them is adding to the workload of the city’s short-staffed police department, public records show.
The Tucson Police Department has received more than 200 reports from the public since 2019 of assaults, threats and other problems at an industrial lot on 5255 E. Canada St., the home of A & B Towing, public records show. Many were from motorists who said they were stranded when the towing firm refused to return their vehicles because they couldn’t pay.
Complainants say A & B tow trucks cruise the city at night, often on Saturdays in the downtown area, searching for vehicles parked on private property even if there are no visible signs warning drivers not to park there. Some vehicle owners reported being towed for no reason from their assigned parking spots at apartment complexes.
Tempers often flare when A & B employees demand $250 or more to release vehicles to owners who insist they shouldn’t have been towed in the first place, records show.
Most drivers end up paying because they don’t realize they are not legally required to do so, said Capt. Mickey Petersen, commander of Tucson police’s Operations Division South, which includes the A & B towing yard.
A towing firm can try to collect by sending a bill, but cannot legally hold a vehicle hostage to force payment in such situations, he said.
“Our citizens are being preyed upon,” Petersen said “You go downtown to have dinner, come back and find your car gone and think it’s stolen. The average person has no idea they don’t have to pay to get it back.”
A & B Towing operator Cecelia B. Perez, 60, was charged in December on suspicion of assault with intent to injure, a misdemeanor, after allegedly clashing with a Tucson man trying to get his towed vehicle back. City court records show the case is still active, with a pretrial conference scheduled for Monday, Sept. 12.
Capt. Mickey Petersen is commander of TPD Operations Division South.
Tucson police spokesman Officer Frank Magos said Perez and a car owner “got into a scuffle. From the officer’s investigation, he determined that Perez made the first contact and charged Perez with assault.”
Perez could not be reached for comment for this story. She did not respond to detailed messages left on Aug. 31 and Sept. 8 with employees who answered the company’s phone number.
Perez is listed in state business registration records as the founder, manager, registered agent and and co-owner of a limited liability company that has owned the A & B towing yard property since 2015. Her signature appears on purchase records filed at the Pima County Recorder’s office.
Some states have stringent laws aimed at protecting consumers from so-called predatory towing firms. Arizona law provides fewer legal protections than all five neighboring states — California, Utah, Nevada, Colorado and New Mexico — according the nonprofit U.S. PIRG (Public Interest Research Group), which maintains a database of state towing laws nationwide.
In Tucson, A & B Towing operates without local limits because the city, which has the legal power to set local towing and storage fees, has not done so, according to the city’s public information office.
Court case victory
Many motorists let the matter drop once they leave the A & B towing yard. One Southern Arizona native decided to go to small claims court and recently won his case, public records show.
The plaintiff, Robert Bracker, a 27-year-old filmmaker who grew up in Tubac about 50 miles south of Tucson, said the incident occurred in 2019 when he went downtown to meet friends on a Saturday night and parked in the lot of CSL Plasma at 135 S. Fourth Ave., a business that was closed at the time. CSL Plasma did not respond to requests for comment emailed twice last week to two addresses at the company’s Florida headquarters.
Robert Bracker, a Southern Arizona native, won a small claims court judgment against A & B Towing of Tucson in early 2022. He hasn't seen a penny from the company.
Bracker said he returned a few hours later to find his Toyota Corolla gone, and called police in a panic thinking it was stolen, which seemed like the only possibility since the lot was not posted with “No Parking” signs warning that vehicles would be towed.
By the time police tracked down his car, A & B Towing was closed for the rest of the weekend. So on Monday, the company charged Bracker $60 for overnight storage on top of the $200 towing fee to retrieve his vehicle.
Bracker said in an interview he decided to pay to get his car back quickly, then went back the next day and took the photographs that would win his case in court — shots that showed no warning signs that vehicles would be towed visible in the CSL parking lot.
“It was clear to the court that no signage of ‘No Parking’ was posted near the locations of where the car was parked or anywhere near the vicinity,” the hearing officer wrote, awarding Bracker a $433 judgment to cover his towing and storage fees, Uber rides and court filing fees.
Bracker said he gave a copy the judgment to A & B Towing in person three months ago and was told “someone will get back to you.”
So far he hasn’t seen a penny, he said.
If a towing firm won’t return a vehicle that was improperly towed without payment, TPD advises calling 911. Company officials can face a charge of vehicle theft if they don’t return a vehicle at that point, said Magos, the police spokesman.
Arizona lags in regulations
Towing firms are less regulated in Arizona than in all five of the states that border it, according to the U.S. PIRG database. For example:
Utah, Nevada, Colorado and New Mexico ban tow truck drivers from “cruising” for vehicles parked on private property.
Colorado and New Mexico require tow truck drivers to photograph the scene of an alleged parking violation before moving the vehicle.
California, New Mexico and Nevada require towing firms to reimburse motorists whose vehicles are wrongfully towed.
All neighboring states set maximum towing and storage fees at the state level. Arizona leaves it up to cities and towns, and some, like Tucson, have not adopted local measures.
“Arizona clearly is behind other neighboring states,” said Teresa Murray, who tracks towing laws for U.S. PIRG and its local affiliate, Arizona PIRG.
While Tucson has eschewed local regulations, Phoenix has capped towing fees at $105 and storage fees at $12 a day — substantially less than what A & B charges in Tucson.
Bracker, who won court judgment, said he hopes sharing his tale might move state or local lawmakers to reconsider.
“I might never get my money back but I don’t regret it,” he said of the case, recalling the desperation of other drivers he met at the towing yard who couldn’t afford to pay.
If nothing else, he hopes his story boosts public awareness of a drivers’ rights if they are towed without cause.
“What happened is insane,” he said. “When a company treats people like this there should be some kind of consequences.”
