During Friday’s lockdown of Route 88, dozens of local residents were told by authorities to park in the CVS lot and walk home, multiple sources told TLS.
But when the scene was cleared, they returned to find their vehicles gone – apparently towed by the company hired by CVS, and unbeknownst to the LPD. Some had walked with their children and luggage, as they were leaving for Shabbos.
But to make things worse about an hour to Shabbos, the towing lot was closing, and residents were unable to retrieve their vehicles. They were told they’d have to come Monday to pick it up.
Askonim immediately called on the local Lakewood Police Department, who jumped into action. Some officers immediately went to help give rides to stranded residents, and others headed to the towing lot to fight for the residents – who were just following orders.
But even after finally allowing for the vehicles to be retrieved, the residents were told they would need to pay $400 in cash to get their cars back.
With most not having $400 in cash on them, Moshe’s Towing company reportedly laid out the cash for multiple residents.
The Lakewood Police Chief and other high-ranking officials are looking into the incident.
Moshe’s Towing is a true Tzadik!
Hashem should bentch him all the best
Something is not adding up.
If they were told to park there by authorities, why are they paying for the towing??
We should boycott CVS till its resolved!
i heard the sherif tell pep to park in cvs and walk But once the road was open the police and sherif Weren’t there anymore and then towing showed up
Disgusting ! And besides there was no reason to even stop cars so far from the fake home invasion they could have let whoever lives near by to drive home
@hold on
Read the article. Maybe that’s what is being looked into
Anybody know which towing company picked up the cars from CVS?
Towing should not be more than $100..
They shouldn’t pay at all!!!!
Hey yossi how would police know it was fake at the time of incident ?!? Find an alternate route home not that hard.
Police blocked off the road close to a mile away from the incident. I assume it was done out of safety concerns. Having people people walk home including children and parents holding their infant children on busy roads (Cedar bridge rt 88) was not insuring peoples safety.
Yes, there was no reason to close off street for hundreds of local residents so far away from the police scene. They should have blocked off by the park where wouldn’t inconvenience people. It me over an hour to figure out how to get home and my Friday afternoon errands were messed up, tons of ppl stuck in their houses for a few hours.
Police on each side of Rt 88 not in contact with each other to give guidance how to get home.
Not sure how they’re able to get away with it, there are towing regulations regarding charges. Also regulations require towing companies to accept credit cards, if not they may be fined.
HIGHWAY ROBBERY!!!!
How can we keep allowing this towing facility to keep robbing the people blind. How dare they not be open to let people get their cars back.
I propose an ordinance mandating the minimum qualifications qualifications a towing facility must meet in order to operate in this township. They will include 1) fair pricing structures 2) fair & expanded hours of operation – especially in situations similar to what happened on Friday 3) stopping the clock at the time the customer walks in the door and is ready to pay. Otherwise they will have only one employee taking his sweet time in processing the release. This can have an unfair impact when there are 20+ people trying to get their vehicles back.
I will also point out that the local management at CVS has shown ungrateful conduct to the community by having the local resident’s vehicles impounded. They were well aware of the extended police situation and that something like this has never happened before. They should’ve reached out to the Mayor’s office or police commander to attempt less harsh/mean measures in clearing their lot. They should not be biting the hand that feeds them! Shame on them!!
@ Owned a towing company once,
The impound lot needs to make money as well.
@hey yossi approx 250 homes were blocked, Lakeview Victor ocean pointe & ocean place had now access for 4 hours
It wasn’t Lakewood Police, it was the Ocean County Sheriff Department.
Time to boycott CVS and the other stores in that plaza unless they apologize and refund the towing fees paid. Maybe criminal charges should be filed against those who improperly ordered the cars towed. The best defense is a strong offense!
What gives police the right to tell people to park on private property? If it would have been your driveway would you be as gracious?
The psycho freak that created this whole mess, really cost the County/Lakewood law enforcement departments & the local residents a huge bundle of money. I sure hope he gets sued for all the damages he caused.
There is probably a sign in the lot that says “parking for customers only, all other will be towed at owners expense”.
CVS and the towing company should have been sensitive to the situation going on, but instead decided to cash in.
It is disgusting of them to cash in on others’ sorrow.
On another note, I hope the township puts regulations in place to control the tow fees. $400 is absurd!!!
Good luck! I had my car stolen. The car was found by the police a few months later. It took weeks until the police told me i could take my car back. Nobody mentionned any storage or towing fee.
By the time I was able to get my car I owed almost $900 more than the value of the car, that i didn’t have. I gave them the title and said good bye to my car! Thank you Trenton police department!
(I did call them after the towing company told me they couldn’t release the car unless I paid but they said they couldn’t do anything about it!!)
I felt like I was robbed 2 times!
My car had broken down at cvs before i had walked 15 min to my house and returned back to cvs about 25 min later to retrieve my car that was MISSING!! Well the towing company hired by the plaza had towed it. I paid 340 to get my car back. Well i contacted the owner of the plaza and he had refunded half of my money and made it a rule to only tow cars after being there for 24 hrs. The towing company didnt want to but the owner of the plaza made them give me back the other half of my money. Well then exactly a yr later the same towing company who tows for woodlake manor came and towed my vehicle in which was parked where i have resided for 5 yrs. They took my vehicle because they said it was leaking oil, then they changed their minds and said they towed it because it was inoperable. In all reality i had gotten a new car and was driving that instead. So pretty much they stole my vehicle. I tried to get it back and the refused. This happened dec 2016, it is now july 2017 and never got my vehicle back. This is also the same company who if u are delivering food and park your car will come and grab your car. If u catch them in time they will demand 75 bucks CASH to let down your vehicle. The drivers at this company has also asked my husband many times where they can find drugs in my neighborhood. For the life of me i cannot remember the name of the company however if u pull into woodlake manor there is a huge sign with their name and number on it.
CVS was probably upset at the loss of business the “invasion” was causing, and took it out on the poor Ocean Pointe residents. I for one was unable to enter the CVS parking lot, due to the incident. This is totally unacceptable and support the notion to boycott CVS until the cars are returned and the fees are refunded.
As for towing abuse, though unjust, incidents are too infrequent to make this into an issue. It’s not like the county calls down the SWAT team at the behest of a mentally unstable person every day.
Why wont tls post which Towing company did this?
It is illegal for the towing company to price gouge. Is there a sign at the lot clearly stating what the charge will be? If rates are higher than the standard rate in the area it is illegal.
So many comments and feedback. Here’s a constructive view and (from a former frum Tow Truck operator). Moshe is indeed a Holy Man – charges bubkas as it is for towing, as a huge Chesed which is the entire basis of his business.
To “Yehuda H””, the correct spelling (at the end of your comment) is “ensuring”.
To the remaining comments, the only logical way of looking at this, is by stating that Law Enforcement doesn’t legally possess the right to mandate parking without prior authorization unless an emergency or life threatening matter should be the current situation at hand.
As for towing – the 400 isn’t for the actual tow though rather for the (official) impounding of a vehicle though even that is outrageous & absurd as a tow (especially locally, in lkwd) isn’t more than 50 (even at the worst) by any Frum tow truck companies, for a standard tow.
In addition, it sounds like Law Enforcement needs to claim responsibility as (they often don’t communicate properly and set the record straight between officers), while one or 2 may have put the word out and there was no clarity on the circumstances.
As for CVS, appears as a targeting a community because they should’ve presumed that there was a valid or reason for a sudden parking lot fill and probably waited till Shabbos hit, so that no one could do anything to stop them! Despicable!