Urgent Support Needed for Disabled Senior's Car

I need some help!!!

First of all, I am 61 and disabled. I live on Social Security Disability, and that is my only income. I live alone in Golden Hill and have lived here for about 10 years. I get by on an income of about $2300 a month.

A couple of months ago, I had a friend whose mother-in-law wanted to sell her BMW. It was a one-owner car and had been garage-kept. It was physically in beautiful shape. Not a ding, scratch, or swirl on the near-perfect paint. No fading… nothing. The interior was near showroom perfect. The only slight scratch in the beautiful leather is in the driver's seat. It is a very minor scratch on the bottom of the seat. Otherwise, the interior is beautiful! Again, no fading.

I knew there were a couple of mechanical issues with the car, but it was something I could fix. Well, mostly anyway. I just had to do it as I could afford it.

The apartments I live in don’t have any off-street parking, so I have to park on the street. This is where the problem comes in. I am going through the process with DMV and had finally fixed everything I needed to fix to get it to pass smog. All the registration fees had been paid when I bought the car in December. I have a temporary tag in the window, and when I got pulled over about 3 or so weeks ago, he said that he didn’t see the temp tag in the window, and when he ran the plates, everything was fine. I had all the paperwork in the car to show him. He had first seen the old plates. They are expired some time ago. He was really nice about it and said he had missed the temp tag in the window. He apologized, and of course, with me, I always like to shoot the shit a little lol. The officer was a really nice man and a credit to his profession.

Now to the issue. This past Friday, April 18th, I think the parking enforcement officer that patrols around here had my car towed for more than 6 months expired tags. They are not expired; they are current. There is a temp red tag in the window. The license plate tag does show expired. I am going through the DMV process to get everything legal. That’s why there is a temp tag in the window. I think everybody knows how long it can take dealing with the DMV. When I discovered that my car was gone, I called the San Diego PD about my car. I didn’t know if it was stolen; I didn’t know anything at this point. When I called the San Diego PD, the person I talked to was kinda rude and would not tell me anything about my car other than it had been towed. She would not tell me why. She said she could not verify my identity, so she would not tell me anything other than a number to call. When I called the towing company, they told me that it had been towed and why. I said that there was a temp tag in the window, and he said he had seen it but didn’t say anything about it. I called the police department again, hoping to speak to a different person, but it was not my lucky day. I was told that as of Saturday, it would cost me $445 to get my car back Saturday, but I would have to wait till Monday. They are charging me an additional $45 a day for me to get my car back.

It’s over $745 now to get my car back! I don’t know what to do now.

Today, Monday, I started going through the process of getting my car back. I went down to the towing yard to get my paperwork. That took quite a while by itself. They told me that I would also have to go to the DMV Tuesday and get a pass to take my car off the towing yard??? I went to the police department to see if by chance if I showed them all my paperwork if they would sign off and let me get my car back. I went to several different places trying to get an answer. I finally got to an open door at the police department at 1401 Broadway. There the officer told me that they don’t deal with that kind of stuff. He gave me a number to call for the Towing administrator. I got home and started calling that number. So far I have called that number 14 times. I keep getting a variety of error messages; apparently, the phone is turned off. I have just learned that they close at 3 pm. AND it was the wrong number to call. Now I get why the two officers at the window were chuckling when they gave me the number.

Now I don’t have any money, I live on next to nothing. If it wasn’t for food distribution, I would have starved a long time ago. I only get $70 a month in SNAP benefits. And after the phone update I had to do today, I may lose that. With the income I have, it lasts me 2.5-3 weeks. I live bare bones. At this point, I have no idea where I am going to get the money to pay for all of this. As of today, it is now standing at $745 to get my car back. Tomorrow it will be another $45. This is insanity. I desperately need transportation. Taking the bus sucks. I can’t walk more than a block before my back, hips, and legs start to give out. I have had 12 back surgeries and more than 25 procedures on my back along with a number of other health issues. Taking the bus always comes with a lot of walking. And a LOT of extra time. I have a disabled pass, so I do get a discount for the bus, so that helps a little. I have generally 2-4 Dr. appointments a month. I have to have appointments to go have labs done regularly, and in May, I have a Dr. appointment that will take me 2.5 hours each way on the bus.

This parking enforcement officer we have in this neighborhood, pardon me for saying this, but he is an ASS. He picks on residents a lot. This street and 25th Street have to move twice a week for supposedly street sweeping. Once in a while, they actually do come through. But for whatever reason, the street south of this street (Broadway), the street north of this street (B Street), and 26th Street do not have to move for street sweeping. Just C Street and 25th. It’s a total crock. This parking enforcement officer will be waiting for the clock to turn 10:00:01 to start writing tickets. We watch him all the time doing this. Pretty much every resident around here that has to park in the street gets parking tickets constantly. I’m sorry the city is over budget, but please stop harassing the residents that live here. The businesses have their vendors park in the middle lane to deliver their stock and a variety of items. They do have a parking lot. I had forgotten something and had stopped in the middle lane to run in and get it. I put the flashers on and voila… a ticket. I asked him, and he said he will ticket anybody parking in the middle lane. Apparently not everybody… Some of us park in the alley. We have a couple of feet that we can pull over and park right next to the building. It puts us about a foot or less into the side of the alley. We have been doing that for longer than I have been here. Now that this officer is working this neighborhood, he has started ticketing everybody in the alley. Tuesday and Thursday from 10 am-1 pm, one side or the other is a no parking zone on C Street for supposedly street sweeping that only happens once in a while. So parking is a nightmare. And on the weekends when the nearby restaurants are busy, parking again is a nightmare. I went to an AA meeting Friday night and had to drive around for more than 20 minutes trying to find a parking spot. I finally parked in the alley and had to get up at 2 am and go move my car before that parking enforcement officer came through.

So what can we do? I have no idea how I am going to get my car back. If the San Diego PD admits a mistake, which is HIGHLY unlikely, then I have a possibility of getting it back. Other than that, I just don’t know what I am going to do. I’m afraid that if the San Diego PD doesn’t admit a mistake and allow me to get my car back, I’m going to lose it. And I spent more than 2 years scrimping trying to get a vehicle. To say it is distressing is an understatement…

All that said, I desperately need help. This car has put me behind on everything, and now the parking cop has it towed. I just don’t know what I am going to do.