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Visiting the three-week-old Founders Brewing Co. taproom in Detroit can bring a costly surprise if you park in a vacant lot alongside the new business.
The brewpub opened Dec. 4 on Charlotte Street between Second Avenue and Cass. (Founders photo)
More than half a dozen patrons at the Cass Corridor attraction were towed as the holiday weekend began or paid nearly $300 to reclaim their vehicles immediately, a driver posts on Reddit:
I was at Founders on Friday afternoon. My car was parked, with about 20 others, in a lot next to Founders. Founders staff announced that they didn't own the lot and the owners would tow cars. I went outside to find my car on the back of a flatbed, along with seven other cars. They brought at least three trucks.
Goch and Sons towing company was charging $290 to drop the cars on the spot or $390+ to pick them up from their impound lot.
Yeah, it's probably my fault for not noticing. But it really feels like an extortion racket. The only sign is 12" x 8" and 20 feet up on a light pole in the back of the lot. Their signage doesn't come close to meeting the law. And their fees seem far beyond reasonable.
His post earns about 100 "upvotes" and over 50 comments so far.
The Michigan Vehicle Code says warnings that vehicles can be towed from private property "shall be prominently displayed at each point of entry for vehicular access." The Secretary of State's office has a one-page court form "for contesting the reasonableness of the towing and storage fees."
Founders opened Dec. 4 at 456 Charlotte St., between Second Avenue and Cass. The vacant lot next door reportedly is owned by Matthew Tatarian, a Los Angeles investor whose Bimini Properties II was sued by the city last year for $116,000 in unpaid property taxes.
Goch & Sons Towing specializes partly in impounding vehicles from private lots, a lucrative arrangement for the company on Detroit's far southwest side. It's also a potential source of cash for landowners if revenues are shared, as seems likely for the unused Charlotte Street lot. (Why else would the investor authorize towing, after all?)
The firm's website describes this business niche:
When you need illegally parked vehicles removed from your private property, Goch & Sons Towing can help. We provide 24-hour towing for all private property impounds. . . .
With a large fleet of towing vehicles and service that's available at any time of the day or night, we can be there to deal with vehicle problems quickly.
These are among comments on Reddit:
- $290 on sale -- if you act now! Yeah, a total racket, and a bad neighbor for businesses who ideally should be working together.
- There's so much street parking around founder's it is ridiculous. patrons should use it and Founder's should tell people not to park on random lots.
- Couple people actually challenging their tows in court would make them think twice. But a lot of people just eat it.
- This is obviously bad for business in that area, so why not have Founders get up a petition? Class action has more weight than an occasional complaint. After a bunch of signatures, send it to the attorney general and the Michigan House. Complainants don't have to be actual victims -- just people who see the practice as counterproductive.
- Those bastards got me once. I went into University Foods to get some milk only to find my car gone 15 minutes later. . . . A guy from the store told me it had been towed. In the time it took me to get my car back, I saw no less than 10 other people come into their place in the same situation, all being charged $400 a pop. They hire homeless people to report when people leave their cars and have trucks parked a block or two away from lots for maximum efficiency.
- It's shitty, but it's not illegal or anything.
