DENVER — Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser's office confirmed publicly Monday that it has opened an investigation into Wyatts Towing, which has seen 950 complaints filed with the Public Utilities Commission in the past year.
The acknowledgment about the investigation comes after state Sen. Julie Gonzales, D-Denver, filed a complaint with the PUC against Wyatts Towing when her car was towed last week. According to the AG's office, it was not Gonzales' towing that prompted the investigation; rather, it was timely with the senator's situation.
"We've been working on this investigation for some time," Weiser said. "Our commitment is to be as comprehensive, thorough and fair in it as possible. Because of the senator's public story, because now she's actually a potential victim, we want it to be clear that this is something we are looking at."
He said a state senator can advocate and get their money back, but a lot of other people don't necessarily have that ability.
"They are vulnerable to practices that take advantage of them," Weiser said. "That's what's driving us in this investigation -- protecting vulnerable people who can really be taken advantage of and can be out a lot of money and really put back."
Weiser said that over the past year or so, his office has received a number of different complaints that involved issues around towing.
"The first issue is the signage. Is the notice sufficient so that someone would be aware that they could be towed?" Weiser said. "Second, how are they treated after their car is towed? Is there a sort of substantial fee that they're forced to give right away? Are there other, in fact, predatory conditions that take advantage of their vulnerable state? ... Our commitment is to protect consumers and make sure no one is treated unfairly."
He said if the investigation finds wrongdoing, the attorney general's office will work to get people their money back.
"We also have the ability to have civil penalties when a company acts illegally to take advantage of people," he said. "And finally, we want to make sure that whatever problematic, whatever illegal practices that may be going on, don't happen again."
Jason Dunn, the former U.S. Attorney for Colorado who is now representing Wyatts, said the company has been cooperating with the Attorney General's investigation fully and has provided all the AG's investigators have asked for. Dunn said as far as he knows, the investigators have not found any evidence of wrongdoing. He said Wyatts has complied with the law fully.
Gonzales, who wrote the state bill to crack down on predatory towing, shared a story of her tow on Twitter on Thursday night. In the thread, she said the tow happened Wednesday night, when she was having dinner at a restaurant inside a mixed-use development. She parked in the parking garage as she had many times before. But that time, she noticed a new sign.
The sign read “Overnight Guest Parking by Permit Only” and included a QR code to buy a parking permit from a company called ParkM, a parking lot permit manager.
Gonzales said she figured she didn’t need a permit because she wasn’t parking overnight.
After dinner, she said a friend dropped her off and she noticed three Wyatts tow trucks idling in the garage below, one parked in the spot where her car used to be. One of the employees told her the company had towed her car.
When she got to the Wyatts tow yard on Brighton Boulevard, she was informed it would cost $350 to get her car out. Gonzales said she wasn’t offered to pay in installments, which is part of the bill she authored.
The towing bill of rights, signed into law at the end of the 2022 session, requires tow companies to release a car to the owner for 15% of the total cost or $60, whichever is greater, with an agreement to pay the remainder at a later date.
Gonzales said that when she inquired about the payment plan, she was told that she would have to wait to see whether a manager would approve her paperwork. She said that 40 minutes after signing the paperwork, Wyatts secured the manager approval to release her car to her.
Dunn said Wyatts Towing has a sign out front alerting customers to the state law. He called Gonzales’ legislation confusing when it comes to how tow companies should eventually charge customers for their full balance. Dunn said the purpose of the state law was to help people with low incomes.
"It appears that she took advantage of a program that may not have been intended for her," Dunn said.
Dunn sent photos of Gonzales’ car parked in the garage near signs indicating permit parking. The law requires tow companies to inform vehicle owners of improper parking 24 hours before towing the vehicle but allows more immediate action if a vehicle is parked in a permit parking zone.
Dunn said Gonzales wrote the law, so she should know verbal confirmation of a payment agreement isn’t required.
"We believe that the letter and the spirit of the law is very clear," Weiser said. "Consumers should not be taken advantage of during this vulnerable time when someone's taking their car. If the law itself is unclear or there's room to improve it, we're happy to work on that issue. We're also committed to enforcing the law, making sure that consumers aren't mistreated and aren't taken advantage of."
Gonzales said she's planning new legislation to require it.
“To me, that is committing the sin of lying by omission,” she said. “If we need to spell that out in statute, I’m happy to do that work.”
In the end, Gonzales said the company called her the next day to inform her she would get a refund because of an “incorrect tow.”
Dunn said the company chose to refund Gonzales as a courtesy because they had worked together in the past.
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