3News Extra: Towing Enforced

CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — 26-year-old Leanne Phillips is not your average driver. She likes something with a little more power -- a flatbed wrecker.

"It's basically in my blood," Phillips said.

Phillips started towing a little less than five years ago.

"My dad has been a wrecker driver since he was 16," Phillips said. "My grandpa, which was his father, was a wrecker driver all his life. My grandma, which is his mom, was a dispatcher for a wrecker company."

She got her feet wet in the business dispatching.

"I didn't think they were going to let me be a driver," Phillips said. "I mean, I was a female, you know? And not very many females do this."

Six months later she was behind the wheel and was one of three women driving with the company.

"Once you're hooked, you're hooked," Phillips said.

She said you have to be tough as nails.

"We're on call 24/7," Phillips said. "24 hours a day, seven days a week."

"My day starts from 8 a.m.-5 p.m. and then after that we are subject to be on call," wrecker driver Jason Saldana said.

Saldana said you have to be ready at a moments notice.

"We hardly get any sleep," Saldana said. "I mean, we are there to help, and help our community and help the police officers."

Saldana said even though they might arrive last on scene, they are still first responders.

"We're there to get there as quick as possible and safe as possible as we can and clear the scene, open the roadway for the public and you know, for the motorists to get through," Saldana said.

"I like to think of us as backup," Phillips said. "As the right-hand man to the police department."

"We get PD rotation," dispatcher Steven Pollard said. "That's when there's an accident. Impounds. That's usually when there's an arrest, 18-wheelers rolled over."

A rotation refers to a specific tow company's night to respond to police calls.

"There are days you are running 18-hour days," Phillips said. "We are on call 24/7. We miss out on holidays. We miss out on birthdays."

It's a demanding and dangerous line of work.

"We're on the highway right on that white line, inches from that white line," Phillips said.

Phillips said there have been countless times where cars have come close to hitting her.

"This car, thank God he was driving at a slow speed, but runs into the side of the truck," Phillips said. "At the end of the day, I want to make it home alive."

Towers ask drivers to treat them like any other emergency vehicle.

"If ya'll see lights, ya'll need to slow down and move over," Phillips said. "Give us that room."

Apollo Towing also offers roadside assistance, and during the holidays and Spring Break, a no excuse program.

"We will go pick you up for free," Pollard said. "Take your car and, if you've been drinking a little bit or whatever, take you home at no cost."

They help others while fighting misconceptions about what they actually do.

"We aren't the people that go out and hunt you down for your repos or you know, go and hunt you down for a private property, impound you for being parked illegally in a parking garage or whatnot," Saldana said.

"That's a big misnomer about towing," Pollard said. "We're not out there to pick up a car for no reason."

He said it's a thankless job.

"It's really not easy," Phillips said. "The hours and all the stuff that we sacrifice. Even our families sacrifice."

But they do it anyway.

"Well I can tell you," Pollard said, "They don't know how hard these people work starting from the office, especially going to the drivers."

"I want people to, you know, look at us like we're their friendly towing company," Saldana said.