Los Alamitos Towing Co. Employees Arrested For Illegal Towing

Three employees of Mr. C’s Towing Company were arrested recently by the Long Beach Police Department (LBPD) for the illegal towing of cars in Long Beach, according to an article in The Press Telegram.

Bellflower resident Cole Bahlstrom, 32, and Walter Graham, 36, of Apple Valley were arrested on grand theft auto and conspiracy charges and their tow trucks were impounded. Kabel Yan, 23, of Long Beach, a shopping center security guard was also arrested. Nancy Pratt, a LBPD spokeswoman said undercover officers with the Auto Theft Detail Department staked out a Long Beach shopping center at Seventh and Pacific Coast Highway, after receiving many complaints from owners whose cars were towed from that location.

A tow truck towed an officer’s unmarked car within 20 minutes of being parked in the shopping center’s lot. The officers followed the truck as it dropped off the unmarked car at a lot on Loynes Drive and Pacific Coast highway (PCH) and then returned to the shopping center. The truck drivers were arrested after they towed a Nissan pick-up truck that had been parked in the lot for less than five minutes. Pratt said the vehicles had not been strapped down securely in both instances and posed a huge safety risk for other road users. In most cases in California it is against the law to tow a car that has been illegally parked under an hour.

The problem with predatory towing is not unique to Long Beach. It has become so prevalent in Southern California that police departments increasingly investing resources to investigating and curbing this illegal activity.. Last year we filed a class action suit against several towing companies for predatory practices. One of the companies named in the lawsuit was Mr. C’s Towing.

We recently won an illegal towing case against Beach Cities Towing in Orange County. This company came after our client twice even though they had clearly broken laws to tow the vehicles. They lost both times in the court. This is pretty much the way these people operate – by intimidation and extortion. And unbelievably, they get away with it 99% of the time. All because, owner’s are not aware of their rights and can’t afford to spend the time and the money to fight the towing companies.

It is interesting that the Long Beach Police also arrested Yan, the shopping center’s security guard. I suspect Yan was the spotter for the tow truck drivers. He was probably being paid a fee to spot and report cars that fit some profile given to him by the employees of Mr. C’s Towing. The towing company probably developed a profile of the type of person who would pay to get their car back without any complaint to the police about their vehicle being towed. Predatory towers have a lot in common with organized crime.

I commend the LBPD for doing some outstanding detective work. You guys are much more effective in stopping these predatory towers than anything we can do.