PHILADELPHIA -
"I just want my car back," says Tia Rollins, who has spent the past few days driving around Philadelphia with her friend searching for her 2001 Ford Taurus.
All she had to show for her efforts was a towing receipt.
Rollins says it has been "a nightmare." How has she been getting around in t he meantime? "The bus," she says.
We caught up with Rollins as she approached other tow truck drivers to see if they knew where her car might be. They had no idea and weren't too anxious to help out.
Tia's car was towed from 15th and Brandywine after an accident.
"Everybody just keeps giving me the run around," she says, "and they say they don't know anything."
So, we set out to retrace Tia's search for First Class Towing, the company she says hooked her car and towed it. We went to an address for the company and found it's now the home of a gutter company.
Then, we went to Clearfield Towing and Recovery, where the car was supposedly taken. That yard was closed down. We found their new yard on Annsbury Street and caught up with the owner.
"Her car was supposedly towed here by First Class Towing," says Mike MacAnally. "But we never received the car. We explained it to her. She was here for a while. We told her to call the police."
She did and reported the car stolen. No one seemed to know much about First Class Towing or where operators take the cars they tow.
Rollins just wants to find her car so she can get it repaired.
"In order for me to get it repaired, the insurance company has to come out and take pictures of the car, but I can't find the car," Rollins explained.
Late Thursday afternoon, after word got out that FOX 29 was looking for the car with Rollins, she mysteriously got a phone call from an unidentified tow company official telling her she could find the car at a North Philadelphia storage yard.
Rollins found the car, retrieved some items from it and told her insurance adjuster where to go to settle her claim.
She says the company told her they will waive storage and other fees because of all her problems finding the car. They blamed it on a misunderstanding.
