Cops bust furious NYC driver accused of stealing tow truck with own pickup attached

some_guy@lemmy.sdf.org to News@lemmy.world – 137 points – Cops bust furious NYC driver accused of stealing tow truck with own pickup attached
nypost.com

They finally busted him. Russell Laiosa. I know the NY Post is a rag, but it's the first article I found confirming an arrest.

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unpopular opinion: On street parking is a mistake.

It creates problems like this and takes way too much policing to prevent streets from looking like dumps, disrupts visibility and results in overly large streets that require oversized, polluting stormwater solutions while limiting space for buildings and people.

The problem with removing on street parking is the cars have to go somewhere, most likely larger parking lots. Now if they made more bike lanes and better public transportation alternatives we wouldn't have this problem.

I haven't dived into the article, but it is about NYC where public transit is good enough that owning a car just isn't necessary like most of the US.

On-street parking even exists in Amsterdam, it's definitely less than in cities with less bike lanes/sane infrastructure but there's still some pretty much everywhere.

I mean they're starting to implement car-less city centers. Im all for it! Have a big (free) car park near a train/metro station and take public transport into the center.

Unpopular opinion: Anyone that does repossessions of any kind is a class traitor. Let the rich collect their own debts.

It'd be fun to see some lady in a suit hooking a Dodge Ram to a tow truck as fast as she could.

If you don't have auto repossessions happening, then that'll increase the risk to someone doing auto financing. Those aren't charities, aren't just issuing the money there as a grant, so it'd increase the cost and financial requirements to get automobile financing.

One might need to pay much more interest on an auto loan or simply not be able to get an auto loan at all and only buy a vehicle cash-up-front in that world.

While I somewhat agree with you, people need personal responsibility.

The industry is intentionally preying on people. They have no business giving most of these people loans. Where is their responsibility?

The industry loses money doing a repossessiom and sale, that's the only incentive they need. You can have individuals deciding whether a financial decision is in their own best interest or you can have corporations decide for them.

Meaning car companies will either need to start making vehicles people can afford or the public pressure for public transportation will massively increase. Win-win.

This guy parked in a no parking zone. This wasn't a repo.

And allegedly had over $1300 in parking and other related fines unpaid

Idiots shouldn't buy things they can't afford. I have no sympathy for someone that buys a gigantic overpriced truck and gets it repossessed because they're not paying the bill.

They’re being paid to do a job

So were the Pinkertons. That doesn't mean it's morally justified.

Another unpopular opinion. If you borrow money, pay it back. Regardless of who loaned it to you.

Damn life must really be easy for you with such a simple mind

Yeah why would anybody agree to make life more difficult merely for moral superiority that doesn't do much?

You're really going to invoke the Nuremburg defense for a vehicle theft?

Do you really expect bankers to jump in a truck to find cars? Do you really want to deny someone that employment?

I think I saw a documentary about a similar incident recently… it had two sports drink salesman in a minotaur truck badly parked getting towed & they drove it away while still attached & crashed. Long story short they had to do community service looking after kids to be role models & hilarity ensued…

“He said the tow truck was unmarked, the guy made threatening comments to him and he thought the guy was robbing his truck,” he told The Post.

Oh yes, the guy getting towed totally thought he was getting robbed. A car thief that brought a… tow truck. In broad daylight. Is there a gang a car thieves out there intentionally trying to get locked up? Or is this as shit a cope for a 55 year old as it sounds?

People really do steal cars, my friend. A tow truck is a great way to do that, in fact. Disguising oneself as a legitimate worker is a classic tactic, not limited to the car theft world.

Right, I’m sure they do. I just have a hard time believing the bloke who jumped in a tow truck in a tantrum and drove it into other peoples property truly thought that this was the case.

Don't get me wrong I see the news report from five years ago of it happening but old mate realistically probably didn’t think the guy he told repeatedly to get away from his car was actually stealing it. Edit:

“Dude, put my f–king truck down now! I’m warning you,” the suspect identified as Laiosa yells at the driver.  “I’m warning you, motherf–ker! Get the f–k away from my truck!” he continues before jumping into the tow truck and barreling down the street with his truck attached.

Definitely a guy that thinks he’s being robbed and not pissed that he’s being towed guys, totally.

I don't think we do a very good job of handling vehicle delinquency.

If you don't pay for your vehicle it's down to the company that you owe the money to to get it back. If you don't pay them, and you don't get caught, there's almost no downside for you. If it was a jailable offense it would happen a lot less often we would be able to remove the entire repo industry.

So you're advocating for like... A debtors' prison?

Sounds like he wants a debtor’s prison, indeed.

You assholes love to put words in people's mouths.

Prison is a f****** overshot in any range of the imagination.

What's better threaten somebody with jail so they surrender their vehicle in peace or hire a bounty hunter to go and f****** steal it from them? The idea of a repo man is just absolute bullshit and you all know it. You already can't take someone's primary residence so they're already on the f****** hook for repossession of non essentials only. I'm just abdicating that it's better to use a warrant than it is to use some unqualified racist asshole that bought a used tow truck.

Bounty hunters have no place in society.

Did I say prison? Because I'm pretty fucking sure I didn't say prison.

We don't need bounty hunters in society. Using a bounty hunter to recover someone's property who didn't pay for it is the worst, well second worst outcome.

Right now there is no straightforward repercussion for it. If you sign up for a loan to buy a car you sign up for an agreement to pay a bank. A car is not a primary possession they are allowed to recover their product. They are allowed to hire some lowlife who can afford a tow truck to come and try to steal it from you. We're just begging for people to shoot people.

How about the company who owns the truck gets a warrant to recover the truck, you hand over the truck, or you go to jail to await trial and post bail if you can. There's simply no freaking way you can say that that's better than hiring a bounty hunter to come and steal your shit.

Let’s be real, towing a car is theft.

I feel like maybe you aren't actually familiar with the issue you're commenting about here. Maybe you should read the article and watch the video before defending this guy.

Maybe if you're a legitimate tow truck operator you should have details on your truck and try really hard not to threaten the owners of vehicles you steal tow.

But let's also be clear this truck owner acted like a truck owner and everything went exactly as well as you could expect.

Yeah I mean, the towtruck owner was not without fault by all I've read but even so, the guy stole a truck and caused a lot of property damage and that's a jailable offense no matter the circumstances.

This was a repossession, so unless the repo guy made a mistake they were really far behind on payments. For a car to get repossessed, the loaner needs to get to the point where they know there's no way they're ever getting their money. They would much rather have the guy try and catch up on payments, maybe come to some sort of repayment plan, even something reduced from the original loan, etc. They want money, not a truck.

Otherwise, boots are definitely the way to go if possible, but most of the time a car gets towed because its parked illegally and shouldn't be there. You can't just move it off to the side, so they have to take it to the tow place. It's expensive and it sucks, but I don't know of a better solution.

Let's be real parking illegally or not paying your debts is bad.

Dude broke the law by parking in a no parking zone.

The penalty will amount to several thousand dollars. Especially in NYC.

It's predatory as shit.

3rd party towing and "storage fees" should be illegal. It should be operated by the city and the parking ticket should pay for the cost the city goes through (not funding the cops)

3rd party towing and "storage fees" should be illegal. It should be operated by the city and the parking ticket should pay for the cost the city goes through (not funding the cops)

Agreed. I do think there should also be a punitive fine for breaking the law and blocking the street though. Storage fees also make sense if you don't collect the car X amount of days. Storage isn't free but maybe you included those costs in "the cost the city goes through".

Also third party towing isn't a bad thing if they are simply contractors to the city.

We should just set fire to cars parked illegally instead.

this doesn't solve the problem of the car taking up the parking spot (or whatever the offense was that's getting it towed from the lot.)

Towing a vehicle like that is definitely criminal.