News

Actions

Tampa victim says attempted car thief was a tow truck driver

A neighbor saved the victim's car from being towed
Posted at 6:34 PM, Mar 14, 2017
and last updated 2017-03-14 18:34:38-04

A Tampa woman is warning others about what happened to her Tuesday morning in hopes of getting the word out about a possible thief using a tow truck to steal cars.

Olivia Allen still has her car today thanks to a protective neighbor.

Allen's neighbor says she got home from work early Tuesday morning and saw a tow truck pull up to Allen's car and, after looking around, began to hook Allen's car up to the tow truck. That's when the neighbor confronted the tow truck driver, who then immediately unhooked the car and quickly sped off. 

Unfortunately, since it was very dark out, the neighbor wasn't able to see what company name was on the truck, and was only able to describe it as a white truck with red lettering.

Allen says she has often parked her car out front of her home off of North Nebraska Avenue in Tampa and has never had a problem doing that before. There are no signs on their street with any parking regulations.

"It was right in front of my house on the street so it was just kind of odd," Allen tells ABC Action News. "If I woke up this morning and my car wasn’t there I'd assume it was stolen, since it isn’t a tow away zone."

Allen says she will be filing a police report with Tampa Police.

"Someone posing as a tow truck company taking cars? I don’t know if that's going too far with it but it made me think that might happen," adds Allen.

Please get in touch if you've experienced a similar situation recently: Adam.Winer@WFTS.com or on Facebook @ReporterAdam

----------------------------

STAY IN TOUCH WITH US ANYTIME, ANYWHERE

Download our free app for Apple and Android and Kindle devices.

Sign up for Breaking News email alerts

WATCH | Latest ABC Action News Videos  | WATCH | ABC Action News Live Stream

Follow us on Twitter

Follow @abcactionnews

Like us on Facebook