If your vehicle is towed after an accident, you would expect that it would be safely held at the towing company’s parking lot. But one customer in Kentucky discovered that his towed vehicle had been surprisingly placed for sale on Facebook Marketplace. This lead to police investigating the listing and later arresting the company’s owner for theft.
Owner of towing company arrested in Kentucky
On July 1, the vehicle of an unnamed owner was wrecked during in an accident on Kentucky Highway East 92, and the company Hicks Towing was assigned to pick up and transport it to their storage lot, according to a post by Wayne County Sheriff’s Office on its official Facebook page.
The vehicle remained at the towing company for more than several weeks. But then on July 27, a deputy of the Wayne County Sheriff’s Office received a complaint from the vehicle’s owner after he found it listed on Facebook Marketplace without his authorization under the towing company owner’s name.
Further investigation by police discovered that Troy H. Hicks, the owner of the towing company, had not contacted the vehicle’s owner before putting it up for sale and did not legally transfer ownership of the vehicle. They also found that the company did not meet the requirements to pursue legal ownership of the vehicle in the first place.
Hicks was arrested the following day on two felony charges, one for tampering with physical evidence and another for theft of an automobile valued between $1,000 to $10,000.
However, G. George Bertram, an attorney for Hicks, disputes the charges and in a letter says that his client had a good reason for posting the vehicle on the marketplace. He argued that Hicks only intended to made the post to notify the vehicle’s owner to reach out to his company and pay his towing bill.
