When Virginia Takes Your Car and Your Wallet

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Roadside breakdowns happen to everyone, but they're not supposed to empty your wallet. In this raw and candid episode, I share my recent nightmarish experience with Virginia's predatory towing practices that turned my daughter's flat tire into a $500 ordeal.

When my daughter called around 10 PM with a flat tire in Fredericksburg while traveling from North Carolina to Baltimore, I immediately drove down to help. After discovering her brand-new tire had completely failed, I left to purchase a replacement—only to return less than an hour later to find her car completely gone. What followed was a middle-of-the-night odyssey that exposed the lucrative business model seemingly designed to prey on stranded motorists.

The financial breakdown was shocking: $275 for towing, $75 for "storage" (despite the car being there for barely two hours), $25 for the gas used by the tow truck, and most outrageously, $125 just to open the gate to access the impounded vehicle. Even more disturbing was the realization that if I couldn't pay immediately, daily storage fees would have continued accumulating, potentially doubling the already exorbitant cost.

This episode serves as both a personal catharsis and a crucial warning for anyone traveling through Virginia: always use the right shoulder if you break down, never the left, as it's automatically "deemed a hazard" and subject to immediate towing. My experience highlights how vulnerable travelers can be exploited in moments of distress, and why we need to share these stories. Have you experienced similar predatory practices on the road? Share your story and help others avoid the same expensive lesson I learned.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:21):
Thank you All right, good afternoon, good afternoon,
good afternoon everyone.
Hey, I haven't been on here ina minute.
I said let me come over hereand say hello to everybody and
just see how everyone's doing.

(00:42):
It's your boy, damon, and I'mhere with the DK Entry Podcast.
Uh, yeah, yeah, story time.
That's definitely story time.
So you know when things happen,if things go on, I like to come
and talk about it.
So here's today's gossip,today's little gossip the

(01:06):
Commonwealth of Virginia.
Yeah, I'm definitely about toget on y'all brothers, because
what y'all did to me, yeah,y'all got me, y'all got me road.
And she's coming home from NorthCarolina to Baltimore.
Right, she gets a flat tiredown in Fredericksburg, right,

(01:32):
ok, it's like 10 o'clock atnight.
You know, say, she called me.
I say do you have a spare tire?
No, I don't have a spare tire.
Ok, dad's on the way.
You know, drive down there andwhatever tires completely blown
out, hey, out.
I'm like, hey, when did you getthis tire?
And she was like I got ityesterday.
I picked the rim up, the wholetire falls off the car.

(01:52):
I'm like, oh, this was a badtire, but that's okay, it's
perfectly fine, we got this.
So, as I start calling aroundtrying to find tire places down
there.
Well, nobody has a 24-hour tireshop, nowhere down there.
So, of course, what I have to do, I got to come back up the road
.
So I come back up the road.

(02:13):
So I'm like, okay, jacked thecar up, took the tire off.
I tried to put my spare tire on.
Wouldn't fit.
Ah, whatever, hey, it was wortha shot, right?
So come back up the road, callthe place.
Hey, look, do you have anytires for this size?
Yes, all right.
Ooh, I'm on my way.
Drive up the road, take the tire, get a new tire.
Okay, beating it on back downhere to Fredericksburg.

(02:34):
Okay, so get back down here andI loop around and I'm looking.
I'm like, well, wait a minute.
I know the car was like rightaround in here somewhere.
So I said, all right, well, letme go back, loop around, go
down a little bit further whereI originally got off and come
back.
So I do that, come back.
The car's not there.
I'm like, where is the car?

(02:56):
I said I know it was up in heresomewhere.
So get on the phone, call thepolice.
And hey, you know I was.
I said there was a car, brokedown, blah, blah, blah.
I said, you know, we went tochange tires.
Oh, we towed it.
I said what man?
It was on the shoulder?
Oh, we deemed the left shoulderas a hazard, so it was towed.

(03:19):
Wow, okay, now here's where thetomfoolery is starting to come
in.
Now, the tomfoolery, it's alwaystomfoolery.
So now that the tire they donetowed the car with three tires,
now we got a problem.
Okay.
So now you're going to drug thecar.
Ah great, so they took my jack,right, I'm glad I took the lug

(03:44):
nuts.
So now they're giving meinformation on tow truck people,
right, I call the people.
Hey, look, you towed this car.
I'm just trying to see if I canget the car back.
Look, my daughter's travelingfrom North Carolina to Maryland.
Look, we really need to get thecar.
It's 3 o'clock, it's about 2, 3o'clock in the morning, trying
to get this stuff done becauseshe needs her car, right, cool.

(04:08):
So the guy was like okay, I'llmeet you there in like 35, 40
minutes.
All right, no problem.
So we go over to the tow lotand wait for the guy.
The guy gets there.
Now this is where the tomfooleryreally started.
So the guy over the phone toldme say hey, man, you know, 400
for everything, all right, noproblem.
So well, when I get there tothe lot, this guy right, he says

(04:32):
no, no, no, that's not theprice, no, no, the price will be
this.
But let me, let me break downto you the price of everything.
This is the price, okay?
So they charged me 275 dollarsfor a tow charge.
They charged me 75 dollars forstorage.

(04:53):
Then they charged me 2525 forgas.
Right For them to come pick upthe vehicle.
Then they charged me $125 toopen the gate, to get the car.
Seat right here, seat righthere.

(05:13):
What kind of games are y'allplaying down there, taking
people's money?
I wasn't even gone, probably anhour, and you came that fast,
towed the car and now I gottapay five hundred dollars, five
hundred to get this car ofimpound at about three o'clock

(05:35):
in the goddamn morning.
So that's the way y'all justgouge people.
Somebody break down, you justtow their car and then that
that's how virginia's making allthis money.
Oh, oh no, oh no, no.
I'm dead serious.
I got the proof right here.
I am dead serious.
I am dead serious.
What they just did to me, virginVirginia bent me over with no

(05:57):
grease, none.
Like I said I wasn't even gonean hour to go out here just to
get my daughter off the side ofthe road and try to get a new
tire and then put it back onthere and they bent me over like
that.
So, total, that night I spentabout $600 because remember I

(06:17):
still had to pay for the tire,went back down there and now I
had to pay a damn impound fee.
But again, let me break theprices down to you for people to
not heard it.
Virginia towed my daughter'scar, right, I hate them too.
Towed my daughter's car.
They charged me $275 for thetow charge, $75 for storage, $25

(06:46):
for gas Right, because they hadto reuse that gas to come out,
and then $125 to open up thegate.
We do the same in BaltimoreCity too.
I work for.
That's some bullshit.
Yeah, you know, here's my thing.
You are gouging people formoney.

(07:06):
And then what if somebody don'thave their money?
What if I did not have themoney to get my daughter's car?
So you telling me you wouldhave been charging me storage
fees every day?
Now, this 500 I paid would havebeen a damn thousand.
Yeah, absolutely, commonwealthStates of BS.
Oh, you talk about somebodythat was livid that night.

(07:30):
I was livid, but that was formy child and it didn't matter,
because my child needed a car,because she has to go back up
and down this road and what shewas coming here for was her
brother's graduation, so thatwas more important than anything
.
So my thing with it is again,virginia, let me see, and in the
city, if you have to pay forthem before they release it,

(07:51):
yeah, they do that.
Down here also, they do it downthis way also.
So if you got any tickets oranything like that, yeah, you
definitely have to pay.
So here's my thing.
You know, this is a.
It seems like it's a lucrativebusiness.
Oh, yeah, not only are we goingto charge you to pick it up,
we're going to charge gas for it.

(08:12):
Yeah, now it's behind that lock.
You know, we're going to chargeyou to do this too.
Exactly, you know, like I said,if it wasn't that for my child,
it probably would have playedout differently.
Okay, played out differently.
But you know, I had to put thatnice little smile on because
this man came out at threeo'clock in the morning to do

(08:35):
this and he wasn't happy aboutit, trust me.
But I said hey, man, sir,please.
I said my daughter needs hercar.
I said we cannot come back downhere at eight o'clock in the
morning.
I said is there anything we cando to work out?
I had to be that humble becauseif I wasn't that humble, guess
what he would have did man,screw you, I'm not coming out
there tonight to give you thiscar.

(08:57):
So you know, sometimes just gotto bite the bullet and bite the
tongue a little bit because,trust me, I was cussing on the
inside Because I was like, waita minute, how much?
But wait, wait, wait, wait.
I forgot to say this one.
He said if I had a credit card,it was an extra $25.
What kind of bullshit is that?
Like I said, this is alucrative, lucrative business.

(09:21):
Okay, yeah, I just wasn't happyabout it.
I wasn't happy about the wholething and I said I definitely
wanted to come on here and talkabout this one.
Virginia got me it's all good,it's all good, it's all good.
Virginia, you got me on thatone but, like I said, it was for
my daughter, it was for mychild.

(09:43):
You make sacrifices for yourchildren.
But I tell you, just like this,va, you won't get me again.
I promise you that Next time,if anything happens, I'll bring
a tow truck with me.
Uh no, you won't get me likethat again, because that was out
of control and ridiculous.
The way they got me that time ofthe morning and I was like this

(10:06):
is how they get people, huh.
So you just tow somebody's carand again, I wasn't even gone an
hour, I wouldn't even go anhour because I was looking for
tire places down there.
Just couldn't find one.
But guess what?
They found me and they got metoo.
Okay, virginia, you got me onthat one, you got me.

(10:29):
But I guarantee you you won'tget me again.
But anyone that drives throughvirgin, please use the right
shoulder, not the left shoulder,because they deem that a hazard
.
So make sure, if somethinghappens, go to the right
shoulder.
Ok, and go over there.
As a matter of fact, just calland say hey, I'm broke down, I'm

(10:53):
waiting for someone.
I may have to leave my vehicle,I'm waiting for someone I may
have to leave my vehicle.
And hopefully they don't towyour vehicle away, because the
way they scooped up and got thatcar, I thought I was going to
crazy.
When I was looping aroundlooking for the car, I said wait
a minute, I know the car isaround here somewhere.
It's got to be.
Cars don't disappear.
Oh yeah, they took that one.

(11:14):
They wasn't even playing.
I said, okay, oh yeah, theytook that one and they wasn't
even playing.
Okay, but that's my two set,that's my soap opera box for
that, and I got the proof righthere to prove it again.
I wish I had a picture of thetire to show you.
I don't know where my daughtergot that tire from, but I wish I
had a picture.
But again, if you, drivingthrough that good old common of

(11:35):
Virginia, okay, please, please,if you're break down, use the
right shoulder, because if youuse the left it's deemed as a
hazard and they're probablygoing to tell your cop you're
leaving.
So that's my two cents.
I'm glad whoever tuned in.
Thank you for your comments,thank you for listening.
Again, that's my little soapopera for today.

(11:56):
But uh, hey, listen, you know,when I have things I like to
talk about, I come on here, Ishare with y'all.
But yeah, but I I'm gonna saythis and then I'm gonna get off.
My last thing virginia, screwyou.
So all right, y'all have a goodday.