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Car towed with sleeping kid inside
Filed under: Just For Moms, Big Kids, Weird But True
Parking in a fire lane when you aren't actually driving a fire truck is a risky move. Besides being in the way should a fire break out, you could get ticketed and/or towed. But as a mom in Dallas found out, parking your non-emergency vehicle in a fire lane and leaving your sleeping kid inside is even riskier.
Tow-truck driver Fidel Retana Jr. was just doing his job when he hooked up and towed away a vehicle parked in the fire lane of an apartment complex Monday. But when he stopped down the road to make sure he had the car secured properly, he discovered a sleeping seven-year-old boy in the backseat. He immediately went back to the apartment complex and hurriedly unhooked the car.
However, by this point, the sleeping child's mother, who had parked her car illegally while she ran up to her apartment, discovered her car and her son gone and called police. She and the authorities actually witnessed Retana returning their car and speeding away. The cops went after him and arrested him on child endangerment charges.
While I can understand how traumatic it must have been for that woman to come out and find her child missing (she threw up!), there was clearly nothing sinister about what Retana did. Tow-truck drivers get a pretty bad rap when it comes to their profession, but it was obviously just a mistake. Fortunately, the cops feel the same way and expect the charges to be dropped.
The best part of this story? The kid slept through the whole thing!
Tow-truck driver Fidel Retana Jr. was just doing his job when he hooked up and towed away a vehicle parked in the fire lane of an apartment complex Monday. But when he stopped down the road to make sure he had the car secured properly, he discovered a sleeping seven-year-old boy in the backseat. He immediately went back to the apartment complex and hurriedly unhooked the car.
However, by this point, the sleeping child's mother, who had parked her car illegally while she ran up to her apartment, discovered her car and her son gone and called police. She and the authorities actually witnessed Retana returning their car and speeding away. The cops went after him and arrested him on child endangerment charges.
While I can understand how traumatic it must have been for that woman to come out and find her child missing (she threw up!), there was clearly nothing sinister about what Retana did. Tow-truck drivers get a pretty bad rap when it comes to their profession, but it was obviously just a mistake. Fortunately, the cops feel the same way and expect the charges to be dropped.
The best part of this story? The kid slept through the whole thing!
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ReaderComments (Page 1 of 1)
4-16-2008 @ 4:32PM
Meagan said...Pretty stupid that they charged the guy at all... and I'm surprised they didn't charge the mom! I don't actually think she's guilty of child endangerment, but she's more responsible than the driver.
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4-16-2008 @ 4:45PM
Sabrina said...Ok...isn't it ILLEGAL to leave your child in a car, and ILLEGAL to park in a fire lane? Then why was the tow truck driver the one in trouble? I'm glad they dropped the kidnapping charges, that's just ridiculous. However, I'm unhappy that he dropped off the car and tried to get away without saying anything to the parents or police. That in itself made him look like he intentionally did something wrong. I wonder why he returned the car to the fire lane instead of immediately calling police to pick up the kid, or notfy parents.
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4-16-2008 @ 6:09PM
Heather said...Ok...she just went up to her appartment to get something? Is her appartment on the 100th floor? Seems to me she would have been gone a pretty long time for someone to hook up and drive away with a car. I agree with Sabrina on this one...it is the mom that should have gotten in trouble, not the tow truck driver.
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4-17-2008 @ 10:21AM
Tamyu said...There are a lot of hawk-like tow truck drivers out there. I`ve seen ones in wait, and actually watched one hook up a car and be gone in *less than a minute*. Back when I was in college, a friend stopped her car outside the post office and came back to find the tow truck pulling away. She only dropped a letter into the box inside - so it didn`t take more than a minute. The tow truck driver just hooked the car and pulled it away, which ended up causing severe damage to the body.
I think that "stopped down the road to make sure he had the car secured properly" pretty much marks him as one of that type. The faster they get the car hooked up and the quicker they get out of there, the better chance they have of getting cash. Only later, when out of sight, do they really make sure the thing is safely hooked up.
I am betting that he saw an opportunity, hooked the car up ASAP, and sped out of there.
4-17-2008 @ 6:24PM
Jennifer said...The tow truck driver should have been commended for bringing the child back. He shouldn't have driven off because that just made him look bad; but he should have been in no trouble at all. The mother should have been in trouble for parking in a red zone. Even if it was for just a minute to run up to the apartment. I understand you want to be fast, but there are rules for a reason.
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4-16-2008 @ 7:44PM
eugene said...So why wasn't this mom charged for parking her car in front of a fire alarm, and for leaving her kid inside?
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4-17-2008 @ 2:25PM
Amy said...I live in Dallas, in an apartment and I know the frustration that made this lady park illegally. All the curbs in the apartment complexes are painted as fire lanes (the layout of the apartment complexes mean that parking lots are surrounded by buildings and all curbs could be fire access) and without an available open space, her options were double park, park next to a red curb, or park in some really remote location and carry a sleeping 7 yr. old. I'm guessing she went up to ask someone to help her get the boy out of the car so she could move it to an open spot.
The tow truck drivers do troll the apartment complexes, I'm sure that he had to stop and make sure that his tow was secure because he was in such a hurry to load it and get out of there. I'm guessing he saw her get out of her car and pounced. It's big money once they get your car into their private impound lot, some charge an hourly parking fee on top of the impound fee. These companies are real scam-artists, if you parked illegally then you're at their mercy, which is your fault, but they often prey on areas where they know you'll have trouble contesting the tow. Whether your car was really parked illegally is sometimes a real gray area, (missing signs, curbs that need repainting, etc.) They don't always have the permission of apartment complexes to tow either, which they should because it's private property.
He was in trouble for not taking the time to make sure that the inside of the car was unoccupied. That would have taken him all of about 10 seconds. His behavior (speeding away after returning the car) points to the fact that he knew he was doing something unscrupulous.
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4-17-2008 @ 9:17PM
Sandra said...The tow truck driver was doing his job plain and simple. I don't understand why the mom is not being charged because she certainly should. She should have never left her son unattended in her car. Let's be realistic, the tow truck driver is not going to ask if you want to move your car or if you want to move it. They have to make a living too. I also live in Dallas and if you park illegally you should get towed. There's a reason for laws. I also have been watching the news and sometimes we don't get the story reported accurately. The mom is who put her son in danger because if she wouldn't of left her son in the car unattended the chain of events could have been avoided. The tow truck drivers did absolutely no wrong. I hope the mom is being investigated for child endangerment as well.
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4-18-2008 @ 2:42AM
Autocar-Live said...I have submitted your article to http://www.autocar-live.com which is a social site about cars where users submit articles they like and vote for articles that others submitted and they like.
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