ROBSTOWN, Tx — Every year, over 65,000 vehicles are stolen in Texas alone. But when they are recovered by police departments, many don't know about the towing and storage fees they have to pay to get their cars back.
For one tow yard in Robstown, victims of these crimes were re-victimized with fees well over what they legally could charge.
For full transparency, while 6 Investigates has been looking into fees charged by some Robstown towing companies since the city council voted to stop using its own impound lot, this investigation was jump-started after one of our interns had this very experience. She provided 6 Investigations with documents and recordings of her interactions with Galvan Towing.
When getting her car out of the lot, she met another vehicle burglary victim with a similar story. This victim, who wishes to remain anonymous for fear of retaliation, has a special attachment to her mother's car.
"My grandmother gave it to my mom and she asked her, you know, before she passed to not get rid of it," she said.
When the car was stolen earlier this month, it was thankfully found by Robstown Police. The family felt a sigh of relief, until they tried to retrieve it.
"He did not want to release the car and unfortunately he gave us the runaround that whole weekend although we did attempt multiple times to get the car back," she said.
Galvan Towing accepts tows 24 hours a day and, according to the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation (TDLR), may have broken some rules.
"If a vehicle storage facility accepts a vehicle 24 hours a day, then they have to have the vehicle available for release 24 hours a day with 1 hour notice," TDLR Communications Manager Tela Mange said.
Getting access to the vehicle was just half the battle, as the price given by owner Israel "Jr" Galvan was hundreds of dollars.
"He started at $425 just for storage of her vehicle being there and on top of that he wanted us to pay $125 to tow it away because he stated that the vehicle was not drive-able, you could not even put it into neutral to drive it off the lot, that it needed to be towed away," she said.
She said that Galvan told her the car was totaled, and that it would take at least $2,500, so she should just leave it at the tow yard. This turned out not to be true.
"We had somebody come and take a look at it, they were able to start it right away, my mom drove it off the lot just fine," she said.
Our intern was told a similar story, and had the same damage to the plastic around the steering column. She however was offered $500 to just leave the car.
6I reached out to Galvan, who admitted to doing it, but then backtracked.
"We don't sell cars, they all pick them up. We don't keep their cars," Galvan told 6I over the phone.
Per audio recordings, 6I found both the woman and our intern were originally quoted $550, but Galvan quote "kindly knocked down" the price to $365 each.
Sounds like he was doing them a favor, right?
Well, per a Robstown city ordinance that dictates the price, that may not be the case.
According tothe ordinance, for stolen vehicles tow trucks can only charge $150 for the tow and $5 a day for storage fees. Considering the storage fees should have only been $10 for both the woman and intern, they were both charged more than double the legal limit.
"They are operating well outside the bounds of that city ordinance," Chief MikeTamez said. "We are not going to re-victimize victims of crime, and that's exactly what that's doing." "If something like this happened to my daughter, right, how would I feel about this? It's, it's heartbreaking, it's tough."
When asked about the ordinance, Galvan told 6I, "Are you aware...Are you aware that our city ordinance is not valid, no good."
6I reached back out to the chief, who disagreed.
"Making an ordinance with the wrecker company invalid, you can't do that because there's so many fail safes you have to have behind that ordinance that protects the public from being taken advantage of from the wrecker companies. So you can't do that," Chief Tamez said.
The chief did say that the ordinance needs to be updated, but wreckers still need to follow current laws until that time.
To assist victims of stolen vehicles, the chief temporarily reopened the city impound lot so those victims can retrieve their cars. Robstown police have also suspended their partnership with Galvan Towing for the time being.
Chief Tamez said that if you think you are a victim of being overcharged, to contact the Robstown police department. TDLR also needs to know about any violations and recommended filing a complaint to the state here.
Allegations of overcharging by Galvan Towing are not limited to Robstown. 6 Investigates received this document from the TDLR showing that last year, the Nueces County Sheriff's Office filed a complaint after they said the tow company tried to charge $5,500 for a tow. That person ended up being charged just over $1,700.
Galvan Towing also refused to provide an itemized tow bill. In the end the sheriff's office says this person was overcharged just over $800.
