City Caught Scrapping Cars for Unpaid Parking Tickets

Challenging Wilmington’s tow-and-impound racket, which pays private tow companies by letting them keep and scrap cars.

https://ij.org/press-release/wilmington-residents-file-lawsuit-challenging-citys-unconstitutional-impound-racket/

Wilmington, Delaware, issues a lot of parking tickets and then allows private companies to tow any car with more than $200 in outstanding fines. Rather than pay money to those companies for their services, the city contractually empowers the towing companies to keep and scrap cars. The tow companies get to keep the full value of the cars: If a car is worth more than the amount of ticket debt, the tow companies keep the excess value, and, in fact, the proceeds from scrapping the vehicle aren’t even used to pay off the tickets. In the end, Wilmington doesn’t pay for its impound program, the private tow companies make money by scrapping people’s property, and car owners lose their vehicles without compensation.
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