Towing controversy
For King, it all started when his truck broke down in Chapel Hill more than a decade ago.
He called Talbert’s Towing, and he said they immediately saw potential in him.
“Evidently they saw what I looked like, my size, and asked, ‘Are you interested in doing towing?’” King said.
After a year of working at Talbert’s, he bought his own truck and started George’s Towing.
“I get a hype (from towing),” he said. “I get an adrenaline rush.”
Eleven years later, George’s Towing now handles some of the most frequented lots in downtown — including the Panera Bread lot and the 214 W. Franklin lot, where Noodles & Company is located. George’s Towing also tows The Daily Tar Heel’s parking lot.
On a sunny Thursday morning last week, King’s lot was empty except for a dozen junk cars, though some days he tows as many as a dozen cars.
“Business is good, it fluctuates,” he said.
But for the past several months, King has been at the center of Chapel Hill’s towing discussion.
The town has loosely regulated towing for years, but it began to crack down on towing companies in 2008 after receiving several complaints about aggressive towing.
The ordinance capped the amount towing companies could charge for their services at $100 — $80 less than King had been charging.
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“That hurt me a tremendous amount,” he said, adding that he adjusted by raising his fees for towing outside of downtown.
In February, the council revised its towing ordinance again, increasing the amount of signs companies are required to post and requiring towing companies accept credit cards for payment. The council also approved increasing parking fees from $100 to $125.
The law went into effect on May 1 — and was blocked by Hudson a day later.
Legal dispute
King immediately saw problems with the revised towing ordinance.
“They don’t regulate any other business in town but towing,” he said.
King and his attorney, Thomas Stark, filed a lawsuit against the towing ordinance, along with a ban on cellphone use while driving, which the council passed in March.
They argued that the two ordinances were unconstitutional under state law and put his business in peril.
The council later revised the ordinance to remove conflicting language from the ordinances.
Hudson upheld a temporary injunction against the ordinance on May 2, and on Aug. 2, Hudson issued a permanent injunction ruling the towing ordinance an unconstitutional attempt to regulate trade.
Since the ordinances were overturned, council members said they have seen a rise in towing complaints — many against George’s Towing.
Some have complained that George’s charged them as much as $250 in fees, while others have said the company’s employees were rude.
“He’s making people feel very, very uncomfortable,” said town councilwoman Penny Rich. “We’re not stopping George from doing business, we’re just trying to protect our citizens.”
Outer Banks resident Sarah Gruninger was towed from the Noodles lot in July by George’s Towing when she came to pick up her son from UNC soccer camp.
She said she couldn’t find a parking spot, so she parked in the lot and walked to Chipotle. When she came out, her car was gone.
She was charged $150, and she said they would only accept cash.
“I was starting to panic,” she said. “I don’t know this area, and how could I get the cash?”
She said she was most upset by King’s lack of understanding of her situation.
“He had (the lot) marked, but the thing that really upset me was that he wasn’t really willing to work with me at all,” she said. “He had no compassion.”
The council will hold a special meeting Wednesday to discuss legal options for moving forward with the towing ordinance.
Contact the desk editor at city@dailytarheel.com.
