LOS ANGELES (KABC) — A woman involved in a crash thought she was getting help from a friendly tow truck driver – but it may have all been a trap.
Police say it’s a common tactic on roads in Southern California.
The tow truck driver was pretending to have been dispatched by police, but it turned out to be a ruse.
Brittany Williams says she felt afraid after getting into a car crash. Within minutes a tow truck driver approached her and offered help.
“I let him know, ‘I’m fine. I’m good,'” Williams said.
“He was like, ‘Listen, let me help you, let him help you,'” Williams recounted. “He started giving me this story about how he can give me an estimate – there’s going to be no charge, accidents like this happen. This is why he’s here. The police contacted him.”
But Williams says the tow truck driver was not sent by her insurance or police.
After she signed a towing receipt, her car was taken to a tow yard. When she tried calling the driver, the phone number was disconnected.
Eyewitness News visited the address of the tow company that’s on the bill, and it turned out to be an address in South Los Angeles that doesn’t exist. What’s there instead is railroad tracks.
Williams called the tow yard and asked about the tow truck driver.
The person who answered said she didn’t know the driver, but the tow yard had the car. Williams was told it would cost $6,000 to get the vehicle fixed and $3,000 to get it back.
Williams went to the tow yard with police and recorded the scene as she tried to get her car back but since she had signed the tow receipt she was told she had to pay.
She shot video of the man at the tow yard counting the money – $3,000 in cash.
Williams said she had no choice but to pay the money just to get the car back. The car is still damaged and she’s having to fight with insurance to get it fixed.
Eyewitness News went to the tow yard. The doors were locked and no one would answer.
LAPD investigators say this happens more often than people think – fake tow truck drivers monitor police scanners and rush to accident scenes before legitimate tow companies arrive. They take advantage because a driver is often traumatized after an accident.
“All of a sudden they have a friendly face who’s willing to help them out,” LAPD Lt. Scott Moffitt explained. “A lot of times they’ll be required to sign something. It will usually be a blank invoice or something like that, so I would strongly encourage the public not to sign those sort of invoices or work orders, tow orders.”
Moffitt says there are warning signs and don’t feel pressured to do something you aren’t comfortable doing.
“Once a tow truck driver is not willing to bring you the vehicle to where you ask them to send it, that should be an immediate warning sign to you,” he said.
There is some good news for Williams. She says her insurance determined the accident wasn’t her fault. The scam, however, has made life even more difficult. She is currently undergoing kidney dialysis and now struggles to get to her medical appointments without her car.
“A nightmare, a nightmare. Because I was able to get comfortably to my appointments,” she said. “Now I’m having to depend on someone else or transportation to get there and it’s not easy, it’s horrible.”
Moffitt says any tow truck driver operating in the city of Los Angeles must be registered with the police board of commissioners.
“Ask to see the Board of Police Commissioners permit, if you’re in the city of Los Angeles, additionally, take a photograph of the tow truck driver. Take a photograph of their license plate, of their truck,” he said.
“Don’t ignore red flags. If you see that their truck doesn’t clearly have the name of the company, logo on the side of the truck, that should be a warning flag,” Moffitt added.
Investigators say they are looking at Williams’ case as they try to identify the driver. She wants others to be aware of what is happening.
“Just want to get this story out so that other people don’t get scammed like how I was,” she said.
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