Towed into the legal twilight

Feb. 13, 2008, 9 p.m. I park in a lot on the Temple campus. At 10:30 p.m., my car is gone. A sign reads "George Smith Towing." I call the number. The guy tells me they're closed. Their business card says "Open 24 hours."

"I'm coming to get it," I tell him. He yells. I repeat myself. He hangs up.

The campus apartment building I parked at, like many Philadelphia businesses, has a contract with George Smith Towing. It allows its drivers to tow vehicles for almost any reason.

Feb. 14, 2008, 1:30 a.m., 3103 S. 61st St. My friend waits in the van. I approach the George Smith window. Knock. Wait. I go over to the gate and look inside. I knock on the gate. Someone pulls the blinds back from the window. "Get away from there!" The blinds snap shut.

I return to the window and say I would like my car back. No response. I go back to the gate and knock. Someone pulls the blinds back again. "Don't touch the gate!" he shouts. I hurry back before he disappears again. "We're closed!" he shouts. A sign next to the window reads, "Claim vehicles between 8:00 a.m. to 10:00 p.m."

"You towed my car after 10 p.m.," I say.

"You were trying to break in! That's a crime!" he shouts, peeking through the blinds. "You are trespassing!"

"I want my car back now, and you are going to give me my car back now," I say.

"You need to leave now." He pulls back the shades to reveal a handgun pointed through the glass at my face.

"OK," I say, hands up. I go back to the van and leave. We follow a police car to a gas station and tell the officers what happened. "We can go over there and put bracelets on him," one of them reassures me.

I follow them back to 3103 S. 61st St. They knock. Wait. Go over to the gate and look inside. He yells at them to get away from the gate. They ask him to step outside. He says he can't because he's working.

George Smith Towing is not accredited by the Better Business Bureau, which has given it a grade of F. Its reasons include the number of complaints filed against the company and its failure to respond to them.

The barbed wire glistens atop the steel gate. "I didn't point no gun at you!," the man yells. "He was trying to break in! I got trucks out there! I'm working here!" He closes the blinds. A dog barks. The standoff continues for 45 minutes before he is finally arrested.

The following morning, I go with my grandmother to retrieve my car. They refuse and threaten to tow her car while we wait.

That night, I return again. The armed guy is back on the job. I hand over my driver's license and $207.50. He opens the gate. He calls me a punk. My glove box is open, its contents spilled on the floor.

A month later, we meet again at a pretrial hearing. His aggravated-assault charge is dropped. He-said, he-said. The assistant D.A. hands me his card - in case I want to continue wasting my time.

Was my car parked illegally? No, but I did not have a parking permit. Even though one was not required to park there, that was a sufficient contractual reason for George Smith to tow my car.

City Council has discussed imposing fines on towing companies so they "follow the rules." That may not persuade the kind of outfit where a customer might be threatened at gunpoint.

This story has its pros and cons. They are both George Smith Towing. Pros: at brazen thuggery. Cons: yes, they are.