KANSAS CITY, Mo. — On Friday evening Lauren Hughes and her friend Abigail Bender circled around downtown looking for parking, a dilemma many Kansas Citians have faced.
They eventually settled for a lot at the corner of 14th and Wyandotte.
There are signs at the parking lot that clearly state you have to pay by punching in your license plate number.
“This sign that says please enter your plate number did not appear,” Bender told 41 Action News Tuesday. “It just said ‘wait,’ ‘insert your credit card.’”
So, she did. Bender received a receipt that shows she paid $10 for the spot.
Hughes and Bender went to their charity gala, but when they returned their car was gone.
“[We] noticed our car is gone – has been towed, and we have three women on their cell phones equally in the same position – who have paid to park here and their cars were not here either,” Hughes said.
S&S Towing towed their car, telling them:
“’Well, even though the machine malfunctioned, technically you didn't put the license plate number in there correctly. There's nothing we can do. You have to pay $205 to get your car out,’” Bender paraphrased.
41 Action News went to the tow company Tuesday, but no one wanted to go on camera. They did say they cross-referenced the vehicles parked at the specific lot against a secure database. If a car isn’t in that database, it gets towed.
As for the machine malfunction – the towing company said that's the lot owner's responsibility.
That’s Grant Barnes with NorthPoint Development.
He walked up to Bender in the middle of Tuesday’s interview.
Although Bender said she called on Monday – he told her he was unaware of the situation and would look into it.
Barnes told 41 Action News they have not had such issues in the past and chalked up the issues to user error.
Barnes said his company has used this system for six months and thousands of people have used it without an issue.
Ultimately, Bender said she believes people should just do the right thing.
"You should be doing the right thing. When a person pays for parking and they have a receipt and they can prove that they paid for parking, they shouldn't get towed,” she said.
KCMO told 41 Action News that they require parking operators to display the rates and to have contact information posted in case a machine malfunctions.
41 Action News crews didn’t see any contact information posted at the machine on 14th and Wyandotte on Tuesday.
