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In my experience calling 311 or DPW is useless when your car gets towed. Just call the police and say your car was stolen (for all you know, it could have been) and you'll get an answer much quicker as they have access to the towing database.

If not relocated to a nearby street, most cars towed by DPW end up at their lot at 5001 Shepherd Pkwy SW

Not shocked, seen DPW do tows and not put them in the system all the time. I’d try (202) 541-6083 every so often to see if the driver called DPW/put it in Teletype. Also check to see later if there was a ticket issued. Might give you some kind of clue if they wrote the ticket for the drop-off location. Otherwise I’d call MPD and ask to have it put in as an ‘Attempt to Locate’

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Holy shit that is insane! It's a whole goddamn car, how do they not record where they moved it?!

Welcome to your introduction to "courtesy towing." As someone else mentioned, it's probably worth it to report it stolen. Then put together a map of about a half mile radius from where you parked it and check the streets. You will probably find it.

Then, you'll have to call the police to say that your car has been found, but given that somebody fucked up inputting the tow into the system, this generally provides a paper trail that will coincidentally make sure that any ridiculous tickets you find under your windshield wiper won't make it into the system either.

Thanks! Just edited my post above. They still had no record of the tow even after a few hours but they found our car in the system by searching for issued tickets.

No problem- DPW is the worst and there’s zero accountability when they don’t out things in whatever database they use/teletype. There’s a not insignificant number of stolen auto cases that I get that are DPW tow jobs.

I can't imagine they towed to SW, most likely on a side street.

Dc has some of the most incompetent and inconsiderate ppl I’ve ever seen with my own 2 eyes working for the city.

Sounds like nothing has changed since the '80s, when I once spent a half a day looking for my car in the District, and found it left in a no parking zone with a stack of tickets.

Maybe consider crying a river instead of polluting the planet, classic car-cel

They’re just not bothering to post no parking signs for any events any more, are they?

People avoid having to be around you don’t they

I’ll burn a gallon of diesel in your honor today.

I feel like this advice should be pinned but get an apple Airtag and toss it in your center console. If anybody with an iPhone comes within 30 feet of your car it will update it's location. They cost 30 dollars. Perfect for random 'where is my car' tows (and theft to a much smaller degree)

Place it on the far right side of your vehicle, i.e. Gas Cap, passenger door area, closest to the street for someone to walk by with a phone.

Curious, how much is the ticket?

My airtag is concealed in my center console. It gets hit from other peoples phones in a parking deck I go to all the time.

It's common for DC to illegally tow properly parked cars and also for them to tow you without recording it at all (thus not being able to tell you where they moved it to you) or telling you the wrong place.

See my past complaints here.

I have since put an AirTag in my car in case they do this again. Worst case scenario, wherever they move it, they often tow you to illegal parking spots, so then they ticket you again, and the new ticket will tell you where the car is.

Dispute the tickets. I have disputed 7 of my 9 tickets and have won all of the disputes, even if the adjudicator gets super snotty about it.

Person is an F1 fan, so I'm assuming he's trolling OP and the fuckcars people, but who knows.

Nah, he’s just a run of the mill hypocrite

If only they came and towed people when you put up your own...

This happened to me as well, for the Pride parade this year. I had looked up the parade route and obviously didn't park there, but I got home the night before the parade (pretty late, around 11pm) and parked on my street as normal. There were no signs posted and everyone was parked on both sides, also as normal. In the morning, I woke up to a ton of beeping from the tow trucks moving my whole street of cars. Luckily they hadn't lost my vehicle, but I did get a ticket for parking in an "emergency no parking zone" and another one for the relocation fee. $150 all in. I contested and they rejected, so good luck. :(

You speak the truth!

They call it a ‘courtesy tow’ where they just tow it somewhere ‘nearby’ instead of making you go to the impound and get your car back. No need to thank them…you’re welcome.

It’s probably the only thing law enforcement does around here. Tow cars for no reason without warning

DPW is literally the worst! And nothing will ever change because non of them will ever be fired or held accountable in any way whatsoever

Reporting it stolen will probably just get a police report with no follow up, they literally do not care

Oh they must’ve feeling nice

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Yet you ask them and they think that they’re irreplaceable. In some ways I guess they’re right. Because no competent person from anywhere else (that isn’t just as backwards [looking at you NYC,Chicago, Seattle, LA, SF]) would dare work for such a self destructive city.

I love how they can themselves "the preferred choice". Like, preferred to what?

If there is another choice I would probably much prefer that

r/fuckfuckcars_

Mine is hidden deep under the spare tire. It still works.

"D.C. is a great place is live"

The same thing happened to me. My car was moved a few blocks with two tickets of $50 and $100, one stating "Emergency No Parking" and the other "Relocation Fee". My partner's car was moved half a block with no fine, just a citation stating "courtesy tow". We were parked in the same section though so that's annoying.