YouTuber Jason Lanier seemed to have further uncovered what looks to be a pretty elaborate scam happening in the City of Detroit involving a tow company called Breakthrough Towing and a McDonalds off Woodward Ave.
The scam, which could cost it’s victims roughly $400-$500 looks to involve a spotter across the street from the fast food joint who calls the tow company almost immediately after a customer parks their car in the restaurant’s parking lot to actually go in and buy food.
In one particular instance, Breakthrough was ready to tow a lady’s car who not only had a handicap tag in her rearview mirror but was also carrying a child with her coming out of the restaurant. When the tow driver saw the lady coming back to her car he immediately called an audible and looked to actually tow the car of the Lanier and his companion who were filming the entire incident.
As far as McDonalds goes, they look pretty uninterested in trying to prevent their customers from being scammed in their own lot.
Via the Metro Times:
We weren’t immediately able to get in touch with the manager of the McDonald’s franchise. The day after this story was published, we spoke with McDonald’s corporate brand manager Phil Saken. He questioned Lanier’s credibility, saying Lanier had parked in the McDonald’s parking lot and gone into a different restaurant the day he was towed. Lanier did not respond to an email request for comment.
Saken also claims the woman in the video was never going to be towed, though the video shows the tow truck backing up toward her car.
Saken calls illegal parking at the restaurant an “ongoing problem.”
“Time and time again, people who use that parking lot go into the HopCat, go into Whole Foods,” he says.
The McDonald’s location is operated on an interim basis by Dominique Virgiles. The former owner-operator of the location died, Saken said.
In the hours after this report was first published, we received a flurry of comments and emails from former McDonald’s customers who said they have been improperly towed from the lot. We are compiling a follow-up report with their stories.
The owner of Breakthrough Towing, a Mike who would not give his last name (his last name appears to be Dickerson), says the company only tows vehicles that do not belong to McDonald’s customers. He says the company does not rely on its own “spotters” to determine when to tow, and only responds when alerted by McDonald’s staff.
“There’s really no time limit for how long people can park there,” Mike says. “They call us to come get the car, we get the car.”
This sign can also been seen in the McDonalds parking lot which seems fine, only that it seems pretty clear that customers of the establishment are also being towed as well.
Breakthrough too seems to have a history of scamming people out of their hard earned money with some seedy practices. A quick Google search on the establishment reveals the same practice happening around the Detroit area, sometimes without the parking lot’s owner even knowing. The Yelp reviews also come back with some scathing first hand account that corroborate Lanier’s YouTube video.
