Parked in Jewel lot? Read and heed

Gus Philpott
Woodstock Advocate
October 25, 2010

After you finish your shopping in the Woodstock Jewel-Osco and return to the parking space where you left your car, will it be there?

A warning sign posted near Jewel reads, "WARNING - Unauthorized vehicles will be towed..." (Click on the image to enlarge it; then click on the Back button on your browser to come back here.)

Here's what you need to know about this sign and the part of the parking lot it "protects": This sign does not govern parking spaces IN FRONT OF Jewel (but you'll never know that from the sign). This tow company does not have a deal with Jewel-Osco. If your car gets towed, Jewel didn't have anything to do with it.

Jewel-Osco uses a different towing company (not C&M), and cars abandoned in the Jewel parking lot would be towed only on the authorization of the store manager. And it won't happen while you are shopping in Jewel, either.

BUT, if you park after 10:00PM in the western portion of the parking lot (that is, from in front of the Hallmark Store and west to the street, including in front of Little Caesar's and Papa Murphy's), your car will likely be gone in a heartbeat, if you turn your back on it.

What's wrong with this picture? There is no warning to drivers that parking after 10:00PM is prohibited. The tow truck driver will just yank your car and haul it to Union. Then just try to get it back without paying for it!

If you don't like this policy, complain to the owner of the Hallmark Store and to the owners and managers of the stores over in the little strip from Little Caesar's to the street. Tell them that you will stop shopping in their stores, if they don't persuade their landlord, the property owner, immediately to terminate the towing deal until adequate warning signs against late-night parking are posted.

"What is an authorized vehicle?" and "Who deems a vehicle to be unauthorized?"

If your car is about to be towed,or if you see a car about to be towed, call the Woodstock Police Department immediately. Demand that the officer question the tow truck driver and see his written authority to tow the specific vehicle that he is about to tow. The driver won't have any authorization. It's the tow truck driver, who is probably earning minimum wage and may not even have a high school education, who is making the decision to tow a specific car. Demand that the police officer prevent removal of the car.

One reader recently reported that he heard that a Jewel customer parked in the parking lot one night and went into the store to shop. No sign in the lot informed the driver that he had to park in front of Jewel. Within minutes a tow truck pulled up and hooked up the car. No one in the parking lot will see the invisible property line between property owned by Jewel-Osco and by the company that owns another portion of the lot.

What does it cost to get your car back? Try $170.00 for the tow and, if you don't have the $170 and have to wait a few days before you can bail out your car, you will get soaked for $40.00/day for it to collect dust in Union.

Such rates are exorbitant and should be outlawed. A local tow would cost about $100.00, and storage for a car 22' long and 6' wide ought not be greater than $10.00/day.

I got an interesting response at the Woodstock Hallmark store, when I called for information this morning. The employee who answered the phone (who can remain nameless, since she was probably just following orders) directed inquiries about the towing contract to the property manager. Then she refused to provide the name or phone number for the property manager and also would not provide the name of the owner or manager of the store! Now, is that good customer service?