Towing Turmoil At Ascarate Swap Meet

A Sunday Morning the El Paso’s Ascarate Flea Market and Event Center seemed to have ended with a turf war between two towing companies and some unhappy drivers.

ABC-7 received several phone calls from people who claimed their cars were towed, without reason, by Extreme Towing.

“When I came out my car was towed,” said 19-year-old Jazmine Luna, who went into the swap meet in South Central El Paso with her mother, and when she came out her car was gone. In its place: a bill.

“What I’m more angry about is the fee,” Luna said. “It was $125.” But her car wasn’t at El Paso Towing, as signs plastered around the event center indicated. It was at Extreme Towing.

According to the general manager of El Paso Towing, Extreme Towing doesn’t have the right to tow from the Ascarate Flea Market and Event Center. He told our crew that El Paso Towing has an exclusive towing deal with the property owner of Ascarate Event Center.

After some digging online, ABC-7 found the Texas Regulation of Motor Vehicles and Transportation. It contained a subchapter titled: Towing Company’s Authority to Remove and Store Unauthorized Vehicle. The chapter outlines when it’s ‘OK’ for a towing company to remove a car without the owners consent.

It reads: “A towing company may remove and store a vehicle under subsection (a) only if the parking facility owner: 1. Requests that the towing company remove and store the specific vehicle; or 2. Has a standing written agreement with the towing company to enforce parking restrictions in the parking facility from which the vehicle will be removed.”

We tried to contact the El Paso police and the city’s Streets Department to try and back up the information on the Texas state website.

We spoke with a man who said he was the manager of Extreme Towing on the phone, but he wouldn’t give his full name or a comment.