CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- Nearly two dozen drivers claim they paid a parking attendant to leave their cars at a Freedom Drive lot and later returned to find their vehicles had been towed.
All of the drivers said they had parked at the Walgreen's store near the Freedom Mart shopping center, where they were attending the UniverSoul Circus.
"When they walked out they thought their vehicle was stolen," said Victoria Cureton, whose granddaughter paid $120 to retrieve her vehicle from City Wide Towing.
"They were misled because they were told it was okay to park there," she said.
An attendant was collecting between $3 and $5 per car before the circus, according to several of the people who had their cars towed.
Organizers of the circus had posted "no parking" signs at surrounding businesses, including the Walgreens, before the shows on November 17-22.
Store surveillance cameras at the Walgreens recorded someone removing the signs on Saturday, November 21, a manager at the business confirmed.
Walgreens has declined to release the video, but did show the footage to John Barnette, a civil rights activist who is representing some of the 21 vehicle owners who have complained about the towing.
Barnette said the video shows a man pulling up the temporary "no parking" signs from a grass-covered area and placing the signs on the back of a tow truck.
He said he believes the same group of individuals removed the signs, charged drivers to park in the lot, and later towed the vehicles.
"If not, I would love for them to tell me who was that individual who put the signs in the back of the truck," Barnette told NewsChannel 36.
A representative at City Wide Towing reached Monday evening said no one with the company was available to comment on the complaints.
As NewsChannel 36 first reported last week, Charlotte city leaders are expected to take another look at the rules governing tow truck companies after a recent increase in complaints involving the businesses.
"That’s something that should not be occurring in the city of Charlotte," said council member-elect Patrick Cannon, who helped draft the original ordinance for towing several years ago before stepping down from public office. "We want to make sure that we do all we can to make ensure this doesn’t happen to someone else as it has in the past."
