Imagine waking up to find your car missing. You call the city, only to learn it wasn’t towed for a parking violation. Later, you’re informed that your stolen Elantra is in an impound lot, and you must pay fees to retrieve it. This scenario became a reality for Patti Goldberg of Los Angeles.

One Wednesday morning, the hardworking mom got up at 3:30 a.m. to commute to work. But she looked out the window and saw something odd. “I noticed my vehicle was missing.”

Goldberg’s first thought was: parking violation. “I called LA City Parking and my local police station to find out if my car was towed by them and was told it was not.” So Goldberg went full detective mode to find her missing Elantra.

“I was able to obtain surveillance footage only to find a man imitating a repo man pulled up to the front of my vehicle, hooked my car up to his tow truck, and just took off.” Once she realized what type of con she was dealing with, she went straight to the police.

The car theft didn’t just hurt Patti Goldberg. She explained, “I was in the process of gifting the car to my son and sending it to Houston where my son lives.” So she waited, hoping the police would discover something useful about her stolen Elantra.

Good news and bad news about the stolen Elantra

The police called Goldberg back late at night. “At about 11 p.m., I received a call from CHP that my vehicle was found on the shoulder of the 101 near the Tampa exit.”

When police notice a car parked illegally on the shoulder of the road, they attach a notice to its window. Two hours later, they call for a tow truck to pick it up and impound it. Goldberg said, “They did not even give me the opportunity to have the car towed away myself.” They just called her to explain her Elantra was in the impound lot.

The very next day, Goldberg arrived at the lot. “When I saw my vehicle, it was stripped of multiple engine parts, trashed on the inside, and items belonging to my son were stolen.” She admitted, “I was in tears.”

Repairs wouldn’t be cheap: “They had stolen the battery, stolen the catalytic converter, the engine manifold. They trashed and dented the car.” Goldberg tried to figure out how to get the Elantra to a shop to get it drivable again. She asked about taking the car out of the lot. That’s when a second shock hit her.

“The same state and city I pay taxes to is charging me, the victim, $400 to pick up my car from the impound.”

Paying storage and towing fees on a stolen car

Goldberg admits she paid the $400 in towing and storage fees to get her car free of the city impound lot. Obviously, if she were dealing with a private towing company, they could tell her to pound sand. But the city of Los Angeles could be more lenient.

If Goldberg filed a police report and has the security camera footage to prove the car was stolen, she’s not guilty of abandoning it by the roadside. She’s set up a GoFundMe campaign to recoup her costs and get her Elantra back on the road.