Tow truck driver arrested for illegal tow

Police say a tow truck driver purposely moved a woman's car from a legal parking spot to an illegal spot so he could tow her and collect money.

That driver, Jeremy Lee Blaine, is now charged with a crime.

"Where does it say you can't park here?" we asked Shannon Whitlowe outside a Family Dollar store in Gastonia.

"There is nothing right there that says you can't park here," she said.

Whitlowe admits the place where she parked isn't the most clearly defined parking spot.

But, there are no yellow lines or words screaming "no parking" here - like there are an aisle away - and she was just going to be a minute getting medicine.

"I had a sick child," Whitlowe said.

By the time she came out her car was gone.

Folks who work in the area say the tow truck driver camps out behind corners, waiting for a wrong move.

"The minute you walk in the store, they take off with your car and I think it's wrong," Whitlowe said.

So do police.

They arrested CRS Towing tow truck driver Jeremy Blaine and charged him with obtaining property by false pretense.

That's after a witness told police Blaine hooked up Whitlowe's car and allegedly moved it to an illegal spot, then took a picture of it there as if that's where he found it.

We asked police, what's the purpose of the picture?

"It would be to justify the means of the action which is, you know, shady," said Gastonia Police Sergeant Trent Conard.

Conard thinks greed is a reason for the illegal tow.

"They're preying upon people that, you know, times are rough on everybody and people don't need to be spending 100 dollar tow bills to get their cars out when they were legally parked to begin with," he said.

It's not thepolice department's first run in with local tow truck companies.

Conard says some companies put their signs up on city utillity poles, which is against city ordinance.

The signs get taken down.

Then, drivers say towing companies tell them too bad, they "were" there.

In fact, police say arguments over signs, locations and legalities are getting worse.

"And we're not going to put up with it," Conard said.

Whitlowe had to pay to get her car back from the towing company, even though police say the tow was illegal.

"It was 100 dollars cash and they would not let me pay by check or debit," she said.

The driver is due in court Monday.