Drivers left to pay hundreds of dollars to retrieve abandoned cars

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    DENVER (KCNC) — It’s frustrating enough having your car taken away from a parking lot. Some drivers who abandoned their vehicles during Sunday’s blizzard have now been jolted by the fact they have to pay to get the vehicle back from tow lots.

“They towed my car in the middle of the snowstorm,” said John Mull. He is not alone.

When people called Wyatt’s Towing after the big storm to see about their cars they got a message.

“We tried to come get it the middle of the snowstorm, and they changed their message and said they weren’t open,” Mull said.

Not only were they closed, Wyatt’s left information on their voicemail. That’s according to another car owner, Justin Ahern of Fargo North Dakota.

“While they were closed, you wouldn’t incur storage fees because they were closed.”

When he and others came they came to get their cars, they claimed they were being charged anyway.

Mull was not happy.

“We called all day yesterday gave up at 8 o’clock figuring we would call again in the morning. Turns out they opened up at 9 o’clock so they are charging us for the whole day yesterday.”

It’s really bad storm when a towing company closes its lot. Some 2 feet of snow was dumped on Denver. Wyatt’s was shut down from 11 a.m. Sunday until 9 p.m. on Monday.

Ahern took issue with been charged for daily storage when they couldn’t recover their car.

“They towed it at 9:30 on Saturday night, and then they were closed whenever I tried calling here.”

CBS4’s Rick Sallinger contacted Wyatt’s for an explanation. A vice president for the company said they will refund the storage charge for the period when the lot was closed. A person answering the towing number at Wyatt’s later said they would do that if they have a record of your phone number from calling in during the hours they were closed.

CBS4 asked Mull how much his bill totaled.

“$600,” he replied.

Ahern responded to get his car back cost $500.92.

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