Oct 15, 2007

Janet Mathieu says she was ripped off by a tow truck company. "This is absurd, there has to be some regulation and some control." On September 7th, Mathieu's husband got into a minor accident just outside the Robstown city limits.

DPS called a wrecker service and Mrs. Mathieu was quoted 300-dollars for the tow to a lot. But that's not what her insurance ended up paying. When she got the bill, she was told the company charged according to the vehicle's weight, in her case a Chevy Silverado pick up. The final total amounted ended up being well over $3,000.

Mathieu says, "First I thought it was a typo error. And then the next thing I see,  it's taking advantage of our insurance companies." But it was no typo and her research showed the towing company was following state law. She found out that unlike the city's towing charge regulations, there are none for the county.

She wrote letters to the Better Business Bureau to complain. The towing company in question responded. She even wrote to the Nueces County Judge and was told there was nothing the county could do to adopt a regulation. "Yes, we've had numerous complaints of the price gouging," admits Nueces County Sheriff Jim Kaelin.

In fact his office has recently been flooded with calls from people like Janet Mathieu who've unknowingly been sucked into an unregulated but necessary service. The Sheriff says, "What I've got facing me right now is a fee that looks exorbitant. I need to have these wrecker companies to get together with me and explain to me how they can justify $2,300 to tow somebody's vehicle a mile and a half."

While the county as a whole cannot adopt regulations affecting the price of county tows, there is an alternative. Sheriff Kaelin says, "I can do something. I can create a list of folks that have agreed to charge a certain fee if they tow for the Nueces County Sheriff's office and I'll put them on my towing list and we'll let the others go by the wayside."

Once completed, the Sheriff plans on taking it a step further and sharing it with D.P.S. Troopers.

 Rudy trevino, 3 news.