Axle Towing and Impound

On December 24th, 2023 at approximately 7:30pm (yes, Christmas Eve) my sons car was discovered missing from the curb in front of my sisters home. We immediately called the local police department to check if it was towed and they had no record (yet).

There was no posting of no parking anywhere on her street, we have plenty of photos and videos showing this. We did ultimately discover a minuscule 6 x 12 non-reflective sign at the entry to the property which is not clearly visible and readable from a passing vehicle or even standing several feet away due to a font size that would be more appropriate on a sheet of notebook paper than on signage. I then called Axle Towing & Impound to see if they indeed had our vehicle. No one answered and I left a message.

Arizona Revised Statute - ARS 9-499.05 clearly states that The owner or agent of the owner of the private property shall be deemed to have given consent to unrestricted parking by the general public in any parking area of the private property unless such parking area is posted with signs as prescribed by this subsection which are clearly visible and readable from any point within the parking area AND at each entrance.

Seeing as there was no signage at the area where this vehicle was parked or anywhere on the street where parked, this is clearly an illegal tow.

We also found evidence that the vehicle was dragged nearly the length of a football field (I have the actual measurement of the tire drag marks) before the driver stopped and put dollies under the rear tires. My daughters vehicle was parked on the same street but facing the opposite direction, so my sons car was the easier target. As we were exiting the neighborhood, two additional Axle Towing trucks pulled into the neighborhood, and we suspected that they were returning to tow my daughters car. We followed them for a minute or so until one of the trucks stopped and the driver exited.

We had a brief conversation in which I asked the driver if he or the other driver dragged my vehicle. While he never answered the question, his body language made me quickly suspect that he had done it. He suggested that I contact the owner Brian at their office number, and I informed him that we had called and left a message already. The other driver then joined our conversation.

I then questioned him as to why one of them had dragged my car 300 down the road. He sarcastically responded, And the issue is? admitted that the vehicle had indeed been dragged and then lied and stated, Youre parked in a fire lane bro. There is no marked fire lane.

We went back and forth a bit more as you can see in the YouTube video at https://youtu.be/UnWVJiBraQY, and he scurried off back to his truck while acrimoniously wishing us a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year. So unprofessional.

We were the first victims at Axle Towing & Impound this morning at 9am sharp where we got to meet two more of this companys employees, Tanya and Brent. After supplying registration and ID, I quickly explained why this tow was illegal according to ARS 9-499.05 and how there are no signs on the street that we were towed from. She then read the code from her computer screen to which I agreed and then repeated that there was no signage on the street in the parking area, making it illegal.

I then addressed the dragging of our vehicle to which Tonya replied that the car was reportedly brought in on dollies. I explained that yes, it may have arrived on dollies but the marks in the street indicated that it was dragged a significant distance before that happened. Tanya then shifted the conversation back to the ARS code in which she now claimed that the presence of signage at the entryway and at the parking area was a Phoenix ARS code and the one that theyre bound to follow was for a city ARS code in which signage only must be at the entrance, contradicting her own words from when we first arrived. I quickly corrected her and let her know that ARS stands for Arizona Revised Statutes and there is no such thing as a city ARS Code.

After all of that, they still felt the need to charge us $325 for an illegal tow, which we paid under duress, and to mitigate any further fraudulent charges by this unscrupulous company.

They even have the gall to make you sign a document that attempts to release them from any damage responsibility before youre able to inspect it and before they will release your vehicle. This is known as a duress of goods and basically amounts to them holding your vehicle for ransom.

We certainly will be filing a small claims suit against them for the illegal tow and for damages to our vehicle and will update this once that has been brought to resolution. If youre in the market for a tow in the East Valley, steer clear of Axle Towing & Impound and find a more reputable towing company to give your business.

YouTube video = Axle Towing Christmas Eve!