Top News

by Pam Zekman
CHICAGO (CBS) ― They are called accident chasers – towing companies that swoop in like vultures the minute they hear about auto accidents, and the 2 Investigators have found they are totally unregulated.

As CBS 2's Pam Zekman reports, they prey on drivers at their most vulnerable time.

A car accident is enough to shake you up in itself, but even before police arrive, two truck drivers who monitor police scanners hustle to get your business.

One driver who was involved in an accident, Emily Klear, encountered such a tow truck driver.

"He was definitely pressuring me," Klear said. "He would not take no for an answer."

That is how the scam begins. The accident chaser promises to tow the car wherever you want, usually to a body shop specified by an insurance company. But instead, the car ends up at the towing company's storage lot.

"When I had learned that he had taken my car to his location, I felt like he had stolen it," Klear said.

Blue Thunder Towing kept Klear's car for four days, building the bill to $620 with storage, administrative, and cleanup fees. And Klear says she was really the one who cleaned it up.

The head of an association of tow truck drivers says a typical tow like Klear's should only cost about $150.

J.R. Bramlett, president of the Professional Towing and Recovery Operators of Illinois, said the bill Klear received was "absolutely fraudulent, without a doubt."

The tow truck driver involved, Giovanni Rodriguez, now operates On the Spot Recovery. He says all the charges Klear incurred were justified, and similar customer complaints amounted to "a misunderstanding."

But Bramlett says these types of abuses are on the rise.

"They're fly-by-night operators," Bramlett said. "They're chasers. It's out of control."

The owner of another company, Concierge Towing was given specific instructions by Talbott Steel not to take his car into their lot.

But Concierge did take Steel's car into their lot, and it was there for eight days. That resulted in a bill of $799.

"Fifty dollars a day to store it where I told them specifically, repeatedly, not to take the car," Steel said.

When confronted, Concierge Towing owner Mike Florek denied he stole Steel's car to build up the storage fee. But in the past, Florek has pleaded guilty to possessing stolen cars.

Police reports say the cars were towed without authorization in an attempt to collect towing and storage fees illegally.

When Florek was asked if Steel's fees represented an inflated bill, he claimed they did not.

But Josie Lopez knows Florek inflated her bill to $1,195, and despite her repeated objections, he kept the car for 19 days instead of towing it to her house.

"He told me to leave my car there at his facility so that he could get more money out of the insurance company," Lopez said.

We showed our findings to the National Association of Insurance Fraud Investigators.

In response, Frank Scafidi of the National Insurance Crime Bureau said, "This situation that cries out for legislation… there needs to be government intervention here to ensure this kind of abuse doesn't continue."

Florek blamed the insurance companies and car owners for added storage fees that pile up when he says they fail to tell him where to tow a car. He declined to comment on the Lopez case.

And on Wednesday, the city Department of Consumer Services charged Rodriguez with consumer fraud stemming from a car owner's complaint.

(© MMVI, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)