Police arrested the enraged driver who was caught on camera stealing a tow truck with his own vehicle attached and slamming it into multiple cars — leading his pick-up to topple.

They finally busted him. Russell Laiosa. I know the NY Post is a rag, but it’s the first article I found confirming an arrest.

  • samothtiger
    1441·
    2 months ago

    Let’s be real, towing a car is theft.

    • KoboldCoterieEnglish
      221·
      2 months ago

      I feel like maybe you aren’t actually familiar with the issue you’re commenting about here. Maybe you should read the article and watch the video before defending this guy.

      • metaStatic@kbin.earth
        16·
        2 months ago

        Maybe if you’re a legitimate tow truck operator you should have details on your truck and try really hard not to threaten the owners of vehicles you steal tow.

        But let’s also be clear this truck owner acted like a truck owner and everything went exactly as well as you could expect.

        • KoboldCoterieEnglish
          7·
          2 months ago

          Yeah I mean, the towtruck owner was not without fault by all I’ve read but even so, the guy stole a truck and caused a lot of property damage and that’s a jailable offense no matter the circumstances.

    • walden@sub.wetshaving.social
      111·
      2 months ago

      This was a repossession, so unless the repo guy made a mistake they were really far behind on payments. For a car to get repossessed, the loaner needs to get to the point where they know there’s no way they’re ever getting their money. They would much rather have the guy try and catch up on payments, maybe come to some sort of repayment plan, even something reduced from the original loan, etc. They want money, not a truck.

      Otherwise, boots are definitely the way to go if possible, but most of the time a car gets towed because its parked illegally and shouldn’t be there. You can’t just move it off to the side, so they have to take it to the tow place. It’s expensive and it sucks, but I don’t know of a better solution.

      • FuglyDuck@lemmy.worldEnglish
        1·
        2 months ago

        this doesn’t solve the problem of the car taking up the parking spot (or whatever the offense was that’s getting it towed from the lot.)

      • dodgy_bagel@lemmy.blahaj.zone
        2·
        2 months ago

        The penalty will amount to several thousand dollars. Especially in NYC.

        It’s predatory as shit.

        3rd party towing and “storage fees” should be illegal. It should be operated by the city and the parking ticket should pay for the cost the city goes through (not funding the cops)

        • lud@lemm.ee
          1·
          2 months ago

          3rd party towing and “storage fees” should be illegal. It should be operated by the city and the parking ticket should pay for the cost the city goes through (not funding the cops)

          Agreed. I do think there should also be a punitive fine for breaking the law and blocking the street though. Storage fees also make sense if you don’t collect the car X amount of days. Storage isn’t free but maybe you included those costs in “the cost the city goes through”.

          Also third party towing isn’t a bad thing if they are simply contractors to the city.