Towing Away Vehicles in Parking Lots

Today I got a phone call from a woman who had a vehicle in a parking lot on Rikers Island. I’ve been working for a junk car removal service for a few years now and have never received a call with a car that needed to be towed off of Rikers Island. I asked the woman if tow trucks are even allowed to go onto the island, and she said that they are but that she would have to accompany him onto the island. She said that she would have to meet the driver at the end of the bridge and get a pass for them to get onto the island. This posed an issue because, for insurance purposes, we do not allow pedestrians to ride in the truck with the towers.

I brought the issue to my manager’s attention and asked what I should do in this matter. My manager assumed that getting the vehicle would be a hassle. My manager thought that the driver and/or the vehicle
would have to get searched and that this would take a great deal of time. Our tow drivers are paid by the hour and run on a schedule each day. If it takes more than an hour to pick up this vehicle then we will miss out on other vehicles to pick up. For example, if it normally takes approximately one hour to pick up two vehicles, suppose getting this car on Rikers Island will take 2 hours, then we would miss out on two or three other vehicles that could be picked up. My manager weighed the pros and cons and concluded that picking up this vehicle would not be worth it. I, therefore, told the woman that we were not interested in towing her vehicle away; it would be a hassle for our company and not worth picking up.

After hanging up with the woman, I discussed the situation with a coworker. I told him that I thought that police stations were affiliated with some tow companies and why doesn’t she just contact one of her affiliate tow companies. He told me that usually prisons have their own tow trucks. Why, then, doesn’t she just have the prison tow truck tow the vehicle off of the island and then our tow truck can tow is from the other end of the bridge? That would make the situation so much simpler.

Even though we were not interested in picking up the vehicle, there may be other tow companies that are interested. All the woman would have to do is go to Google and type in Junk My Car Queens and contact other junk car removal companies that are listed.