WASHINGTON — An Arlington, Virginia towing company is coming under fire for trying to tow a car while two children were still inside.
Last Friday, Max Daout stopped by the CVS on Columbia Pike in Arlington to pick up some medicine for his 7-year-old son, Max, who waited in the car. Young Max was accompanied by his 17-year-old stepdaughter, Triysi Veliz, reports NBC Washington.
The pair then felt a jolt and realized the car was being towed.
“The car started to lift up,” young Max told NBC Washington. “I was like scared. I looked out the back and then saw the tow driver and then I opened the door a little bit and said, ‘Wait, wait wait.'”
An Advanced Towing driver heard the boy crying and stopped towing the vehicle. The tow truck was driving out of the parking lot when Daout says he left CVS, NBC Washington reports.
Daout says he was parked legally when his car was towed and he is “very upset.”
Daout complained to Advanced Towing, but he says the owner, John O’Neill, hasn’t followed up with him.
O’Neill sent a statement to NBC Washington saying the car was illegally parked because Daout walked off site before returning to CVS.
“The vehicle had tinted windows, however, before removing the vehicle from its parking space, occupants were noticed and the vehicle was never moved from its space,” O’Neill said in the statement.
This isn’t the first complaint aimed at Advanced Towing in recent months. In December, NBC Washington reported that the company towed a woman’s car while her dog was still inside.
Watch the NBC Washington report:
