High time to look into towing companies | Opinion

You hear the stories. And it's pretty easy to believe them. Last night, it happened to me. 

An old man who works for HDK laid down on my hood and prevented me from leaving. He was trying to tow my car off a spot off Tichernor Avenue, and I was ready to leave. He wouldn't let me. And then Auburn Police Department officers aided him. 

It was messed up to begin with. Literally, blocking my exit. Daring me to run over him, so he could tow my car. HDK didn't have the car hooked up, by the way. Just blocked by this old man's body.

And he demanded money from me to move. Granted, I had been parked in a reserved space. But I was moving it. There were plenty of other open spaces. And HDK didn't have my car hooked up, which would have allowed them to demand money to lower it. That should have been that. But no. 

Should they have a license to operate in the city of Auburn and lay on hoods to get their coin, laws be damned? Should the police be given a pass for basically nodding in their direction? How many people does this happen to? The old HDK employee, without my car hooked up, literally laid on the hood and prevented movement.

The old guy called the cops. And the Auburn Police Department complied with him. They didn't ask the actual owner of the car, me, a single question. Nor did they do anything to stop what amounts to, in my opinion, theft, which the APD aided by their compliance, ignorance and/or negligence. I am appalled at how the Auburn police responded to this and will be filing numerous information requests to see if, and to what extent, our local law enforcement is compromised and how much instruction they need to understand basic rights so that this doesn't happen again to any of us who live here or to those who visit our city.

I've heard the anecdotes over the years. Now, I'm motivated to look into them. 

And HDK still has my car, taken by an old man laying on a hood.

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