Last Saturday, I drove over to Louisville to attend the first annual Living Out Loud music festival. I volunteered to help promote the National Women’s Music Festival by chatting up folks who came by the table, and also several of my friends were performing in the festival. A good time was had by all, and afterwards my famished performer friends and I caravaned on over to Ramsi’s Café on the World for some fabulous food.
At this point in the evening it was nearly 11:30pm, so none of us thought much about parking across the street in the Mid-City Mall lot, since it was obvious that the mall was closed and there were plenty of spaces away from the mall itself. I was the only one in my group of five (the other three arrived later) who noticed the “parking for mall customers only sign,” but I assumed that it would be okay. Why would the mall need those spaces at 11:30pm on a Saturday night? Right? Wrong.
It seems that they have recently gotten tough on those parking there who are not mall patrons. During the day, it’s harder to catch them, but after the mall closes, it’s apparently a gold mine for Dave’s Towing Service. At $107 a pop, no wonder they are quick to tow offender’s vehicles away. Out of the eight of us, they made $428 that night. Cash. That was the most expensive dessert I’ve ever had.
We had such a great time talking and laughing at Ramsi’s that it was quite a shock to walk out at 1 a.m. and realize that our vehicles were no longer parked in the lot. We managed to get directions to the lot where our vehicles were being held and flagged down a taxi. Once we got there, we encountered Mr. Towing Jerk. MTJ sat in his monstrous truck with the huge engine loudly running as we tried to explain to him that only two of us had our $107 in cash on us, but that the other two had their money in their cars. He seemed quite put out that he would have to take them to the lot at the far end of the street in order for them to get the money for their cars. Mind you, my friends with the money in the cars had all of their gear and instruments in those cars. We weren’t leaving.
MTJ finally drove down to the other lot, with one of my friends in the truck with him. He offered to let the rest of us ride in the back, but I wasn’t getting in there. The three of us decided to take our chances walking down the road to the lot. All of us but my friend who rode with MTJ quickly found our vehicles and were able to move them over towards the exit. However, the fourth vehicle was blocked by another car, and MTJ sat there with his engine running and headlights in our eyes until one of his tow trucks returned to move the blocking vehicle. By 2am, we returned to the Mid-City Mall parking lot and retrieved the other four passengers.
Dave’s Towing Service was out in full force that night, and I pity the other souls that had to deal with Mr. Towing Jerk. The $107 was a hard hit to my wallet, but his attitude was a much harsher blow. Yeah, I’m sure he has to deal with a bunch of drunks every night, but we were obviously not drunk and equally obviously stranded without our vehicles. The least he could have done was shown us some sympathy for our situation. However, for a towing service charging an outrageous $107, I’m not surprised that they only hire the worst dredges of humanity.
I’m looking forward to hearing what the five songwriters in the group come up with in retribution.
