CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Drivers were inside when their tractor-trailers were booted in the Charlotte area, according to WJZY.
Cynthia Baker, the owner of Ohio Valley Transport in Tennessee, told the station her driver didn’t notice the warning signs posted in the lot at a Citgo gas station on Beatties Ford Road.
Carolina’s Towing initially asked for $3,000 to remove the boot.
She said she couldn’t pay on the spot, so another $2,000 was tacked on when the truck got towed.
She recognizes the driver was in the wrong, but says the cost shouldn’t have been so high.
“It was like extortion, it was like highway robbery, a scam in the middle of the night,” Baker told WJZY. “And it shouldn’t be that in America over a parking spot.”
She says they should have just asked the driver to move.
She told that station, “They said, ‘We could do up to $10,000. What are you going to do about it?’ It’s ridiculous.”
Ultimately, Baker paid the cost but she thinks $5,000 was excessive when truck drivers are working through this difficult time.
This isn’t the first time truckers have had this issue.
WJZY reports viewers have complained of “overly aggressive towing companies” that seem to be going after truck drivers.
The North Carolina Attorney General’s Office is looking into seven complaints in the Charlotte area.
