MY THURSDAY column about bogus towing in Bridesburg brought a lickety-split response from the 15th Police District.
"There are to be no more tickets written for the block of Richmond Street between Buckius and Lefevre" streets, said Philly Police spokeswoman Christine O'Brien, referring to an order from district Capt. John McCloskey. "Also, Major Crimes is looking into the towing situation. If vehicles have been towed illegally, there could be arrests down the road for those incidents."
That was good news to Brandon Landolf, whose Ford Fusion was ticketed and towed from Richmond Street on Aug. 13, even though it had been legally parked.
"This is a small community of people who work very hard. For anyone to take advantage of that is really wrong," Landolf said.
John Melone, a retired SEPTA cop who'd alerted me to the scam, is glad that police have stepped up but wishes he hadn't needed to call a newspaper for action. When his son's girlfriend, Rachel Johnson, told police her car had been illegally towed, she thought they'd help her. Instead, they advised her to take her complaint to small claims court. Others told me of similarly impotent - though sympathetic - responses by police.
"People should be able to park their car overnight and not worry about paying ransom for it in the morning," Melone said. "The city is corrupt enough. We don't need stuff like this going on."
The "stuff" is just so, so Philly.
Over the last few weeks, neighbors were getting ticketed and towed when they parked on the Richmond Street border of the defunct Philadelphia Coke Co. - an overgrown, 67-acre former coal refinery. Midway down the block is a gated entrance that hasn't been used in decades. Its lock is rusted shut; a tree grows behind it. People have been parking there without incident for years.
That changed when someone posted a sign on the gate warning that "unauthorized vehicles" would be towed from the spot by A. Bob's, a towing company on Orthodox Street near James. As a result, victims were hit with $51 tickets for "blocking a driveway" and then forced to pay $200 to A. Bob's to get their vehicles back.
But the sign was illegal.
A spokeswoman for National Grid, owner of the gated property, says the company never asked A. Bob's to monitor parking for them. Nor did its security firm, U.S. Security Associates, which monitors trespassing at the site.
Nevertheless, A.Bob's manager, "Tyrone," insisted he had a contract to tow.
Tyrone wouldn't divulge his last name - "I give it only to the police," he said. Nor would he discuss the alleged contract.
"I gave everything to police" who are investigating, he said. "I'm taking care of the situation."
While I had Tyrone on the phone, I asked him about seven A.Bob's signs that dot the Rising Sun Plaza shopping center at Adams and Rising Sun avenues. A driver - let's call him Sam (he prefers to remain anonymous here) - called me after reading my A. Bob's column.
Sam said he'd been towed by the company in January 2014. He'd worked out one morning at Planet Fitness, located in the plaza, then left his car in the lot while he attended to other business.
When he returned, his car was gone, towed by A. Bob's. Something felt wrong.
"The plaza is huge," he said; indeed, its lot has 1,163 parking spaces and is rarely ever half-full. "Why would they tow anyone? Isn't that bad for business?"
He did some digging and learned the plaza's North Jersey owner had no towing agreement with A. Bob's. Nevertheless, he still had to pay $200 to A. Bob's to get his car back.
Tyrone said his company once had a contract to work the plaza but stopped towing when its owner said A.Bob's services were no longer needed.
"We haven't towed from there in years and years," he said.
Except that Sam's car was towed a year and a half ago. And the A. Bob's signs remain.
You know what's frustrating?
It seems like every other year, the Daily News publishes wave-making stories about towing scams in the city - from illegal seizures and rip-off wreck-chasers, to crazy fees for hauling wrecked cars off the highway.
For a little while, everything simmers down. Then the nonsense picks up again.
It must be that time again. Just yesterday, I spoke with a mom whose young son was in an accident on Interstate 95 near Byberry Road. A tow truck soon arrived, and her kid felt browbeaten into letting the driver take the car to the company's garage, four miles away.
When the mom went to get it less than two hours later, she was told the retrieval cost was $1,225 - cash only, no haggling.
"How is this any different from a stick-up?" we ask, every time we write tales like hers.
And yet, nothing ever changes because the amount of money people lose isn't big enough to send someone to jail, and this city has bigger fish to fry.
That's why, Bridesburg towing victim Brandon Landolf told me, he doesn't expect to see a nickel of what he paid to get his Ford Fusion out of hock from A.Bob's.
He's more resigned than angry.
This is Philly. It's just what happens.
Phone: 215-854-2217
On Twitter: @RonniePhilly
Blog: ph.ly/RonnieBlog
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