Complaint Review: All County Towing - Fort Lauderdale Florida

On December 3, 2012 I had a vehicle towed from a lot at SE 1st Ave in Fort Lauderdale, Florida across the street from the Broward County Courthouse. I parked at this location at approx 4:45PM.  I used this lot earlier and had someone approach me to collect a parking fee. This time I waited a while and could not find anyone to give money. I noticed a man walking from car to car looking inside. He was also watching me. I approached him and asked him if he woked there. He told me "no"and I asked if he knew who to pay. he told me "they are gone for the day, it is okay to park without paying. It appeared to me that he seemed to know the place and routine so I left the car to go to the courthouse to pick up someone. When I returned at approx 5:25 I found the car was missing. I also noticed 2 other women walking in circles on the phone. They told me their cars were gone too. Only 3 or 4 cars remained in the lot.

I went and looked for a sign related to towing on that property. It showed one for All County Towing  954 564 0486. I called to ask if they had my car. The person on the phone attempted to look and told me "no". I explained the situation and asked if it might be enroute. They told me they would check. Another women picked up the line and asked me what I needed. I told her I was waiting to see if my car was there. She told me "he told you no" and hung up on me. I called the police to report it stolen. They ran a check and told me that it was towed by All County Towing. I called back and this time was connected to another person, at the Hollywood Florida yard. She went on her computer and quickly told me it was at the Fort Lauderdale yard, the original location I called. We got into my car and drove there. It was approx 5:45 when we arrived there to find there was no parking provided anywhere to go inside to do business. Just a bunch of commercial buildings in a very nasty area of Fort Lauderdale with a terrible reputation for all those things that tell you to never go there. I had to leave my son in my car on the street while I went in to check on the cars location. As I approached the security window I found a man and women sitting at desks, I presumed they were the ones I just spoke with. Whe I asked the an if my car was there he suddenly found the ticket and had no answer to why he told me no and she hung up on me. I personnaly feel it might have something to do with the fact that they close at 6PM and wanted to go home, then charge for an overnight stay. I asked why it was towed and he told me they have a contract with the property owners to tow all vehicles left after 5PM.

The man told me I must pay $100 cash to get my car and needed the vehicle registration to prove ownership. It was my sons vehicle so I went out and had him go in with the cash to have the car released. We gave them the cash and 20 minutes later they towed the vehicle to the street where my son drove it away. I was told later that requiring to pay cash is illegal. The invoice they gave me states the car was towed from 108 SE 6th Ct. That address is not recognized by the county appraisers data base. The car was actually parked at SE 1st Ave.

I felt very violated the way this all happened and decided to look into this too see if something illegal was being done. The first thing I wanted to do is find out who runs this operation. I returned to the location and noticed there were no signs that clearly explained who you were dealing with. No sales office, no business signage. Only a person that acted as money collector when he was present. I saw signs that stated Courthouse Parking and they had hang over signage that someone would change as needed to alter pricing. They even have one the uses the word FREE with smaller print that explains more, but no price posted there. I decided to use another method for getting more details. I went to the Broward County appraisers webite to zoom in on the property to find its owner. It provided me with the name of Fredrico D. Fazio as the listed owner.

After a quick google search of his name it informed me that he is a personal injury lawyer whos office is just around the corner. I called the office looking to ask him questions. The person who answered the phone told me his daughter Quinn F. Goodchild hadles all of Mr Fazio's property matters. Upon an search with Sunbiz.org, the states records of registered businesses, I found that Fredrico Fazio and Quinn Goodchild were listed as officers in a few different businesses. One which is Fazio Properties Inc. I was given Quinns phone number bty the women who spoke with me at Mr Fazios lawyer office so I called her. I explained what had happened and she told me they lease the propertie to someone named "Harvey"and to call him, "he will handle this for you" I called Harvey and after explaining the situation he told me to stop by the next day and bring the reciept from the towing and he would get me my money back. I went to the lot location and Harvey was not there. I went back the nect day and waited until he showed up. he was very suprised to see me and after some talking he told me there was nothing he can do for me because "it is between me and the Fazios because they authorize the towing and have the contract, not him" The following day I called Quinn and explained what occured with Harvey. She told me I was making her late to pick up her child from daycare and there was nothing she can do unless she gve me $100 of her money which she strongly infomred me that was not going to happen.

I tried to find out if there is an actual business that operates from this location. After intense searching throuhg the occupational licensing divison, ficticous names flies, corporate registrations within Florida an other means of public information I was unable to find any business registered with the address. Strange thing is that the property is actually a few different plotted lots that are connected oddly through roadways and join together randomly. There are entrances at many points. All have diffrent signage. The closest thing to a business name I saw was "EZ Park" on one sign at one entrance. I can not find any business listed anywhere that goes by that name. Considering that this is a cash only business, no business name psoted, no business office, no business address, no way to contact anyone without lots of work to only get the run around I feel that this is not being operated within the requirments of the law or at least in good faith. If you google all county towing broward county courthouse you will find a few that had similar experiences.
 
I contactetd that State Attorney Office that happens to be next door to this proerty and they told me to fill out a complaint that will be looked into. I am in the process of doing that but in the mean time I would like to inform others of what I found here. Below you will see some of the sources that gave me the above information. If you had similar problems at this property and want to discuss your situation I provided the names of the apparnt owners and managers of this property. It is my feeling that the property owners know fully what is going on and those who collect money at this location are acutually working for the peoperty owners in some fashion. As you can see it took effort to find this out. It was not the $100 since I spent way more time on tis then the money is valued at for me. It is tha fact that I feel all this is very wrong and should not be allowed by the law. Please feel free to let me know your experience and I hope this info helos you with your cause. I will continue to seek satisfaction through other means avaialable. Hopefully the State Attorneys Office is not bias towards the lawyer nieghbor who owns this land adjacent to the work place where they might park daily?
 
My view on this... The property owner has a towing company remove vehicles after 5PM. The person I watched looking into cars was looking for parking reciepts on the dash. He then had a truck ready to hook up and tow the cars at 5PM. When I asked him who to pay he told me don't worry about it, another victim he just set up. He absolutley was watching the lot, knew the operating procedure there and had an eye on me the whole time I was waiting. Maybe a commision is sent to the proerty owner or a representative as a reward for providing the contract?
 I spoke to a buddy who worked this angle in the past. Of course it is illegal so no one will ever admit to it but I think my guess is right. All the info stated above was provided by government records onlibe or told to me direct my the persons listed.


Here is what I found:

Owner of property at (108 SE 6th Ct.) SE 1st Ave. is listed as
Frederico D. Fazio 954 406 4398

Manager of Fazio Properties is
Quinn D Goodchild (Freds daughter) 954 463 0143

Harvey at parking business location347 680 2908

All County Towing 954 564 0486