Video shows alleged fake tow truck driver steal SoCal woman’s car
By Carlos Granda
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LOS ANGELES (KABC) — An alleged fake tow truck driver stole a woman’s car in the middle of the night and it was all caught on video.
According to the car’s owner who asked to remain anonymous, the brazen theft happened on April 30 at around 2 a.m. when her car was parked in front of her home.
Surveillance video shows the moment the driver pulls up in the middle of the night, gets out of the pick-up truck and appears to start looking around.
Within seconds, he hitches the car to the tow mechanism installed on the truck and drives away.
The owner of the car said if someone sees a tow truck like this one, they might not think much about it.
“I was shocked because he looks like a repo guy. He looks like a repo man and if anyone was on the street and they saw someone’s car being towed, of course they’re gonna automatically assume that someone’s car is being repod,” she said.
“That was not my case, my car was not being repod. My car is being stolen,” she added.
At the time she didn’t know what was going on so in the morning she immediately called the LAPD to see if someone from the city had towed her car. They told her they had not.
“They told me to call other tow facilities. I called other tow facilities. They told me they didn’t have my car,” she said. “That’s when I panicked and I was told that there’s a possibility that my car was stolen.”
She filed a police report and at 11 p.m. that same evening, she received a call from the California Highway Patrol. They found her vehicle abandoned on the 101 Freeway near the Tampa exit.
A number of engine parts were missing, the battery was stolen, and the catalytic converter cut off and removed.
“It’s going to be really expensive to try to replace this catalytic converter. I never thought I would be a victim of my catalytic converter being stolen from my car by a repo tow truck or whatever,” said the victim.
To add insult to injury she had to pay $368 dollars to get her car back. She says police are looking for the suspect but they don’t have much to go on.
“I just want to let everyone know just be careful, be vigilant out here you never know. Even though it may look like a repo person it may be shady, but you just never know,” she said. “It’s horrible. You don’t know the lives that you’re destroying,” she said.
Her car is a Hyundai Elantra, which was the most stolen car in the country in 2023 as 50,000 thefts were reported.
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