106 Yellow Wood Court
Collegeville, PA 19426
February 12, 2007
Christopher Frayler
The Wentworth Group
901 S. Trooper Road
P.O. Box 80690
Valley Forge, PA 19484
Dear Mr. Frayler:
I am writing to commend the board and Wentworth for taking action to rid Perkiomen Woods of the blight caused by illegally parked vehicles. It’s encouraging to see that no violation is too minor to prevent swift action. I’m proud to see that you have arranged for the infringing vehicles to be dealt with quickly by towing operators of the highest integrity. In addition you have added a clever twist to the whole towing process: don’t notify the vehicle owner and don’t provide any means for them to learn what happened to their vehicle. That will surely make them think twice about violating the strict parking policies!
Oh, wait… I meant would commend you on the parking enforcement – except that the policy resulted in my currently registered van being taken from a legal parking area. The parking area to which I refer has been occupied by my van for the last ten years.
Can you imagine my surprise when walked out to the parking area to find my van missing? When I attempted to file a stolen vehicle report with the police, they suggested that it might have been towed due to the parking rule enforcement that has been recently practiced within the Community. They suggested I call the towing company to find out whether they had the vehicle before I reported it stolen. That sounded like a good idea – except I didn’t know how I was supposed to find contact information for the towing company. There are no signs posted identifying the towing company.
Unable to find that information, I contacted the Wentworth office. The office was closed for the day. The voicemail machine suggested an “emergency” number. I tried that number. The person from the answering service told me they would have someone call me back within an hour. I spent the following hour waiting for my call to be returned – wondering whether my van was in fact stolen. After that hour passed, I tried the “emergency” number again and received the same response from the answering service.
At this point I realized the “emergency” number was not useful. I resorted to looking up the phone numbers of the board members. Eventually, I reached Mr. Scheetz. He was able to identify the towing company as Corropolese Towing. I looked up Corropolese Towing and learned some interesting information. The company is run by Joseph Corropolese – who, in August of last year, was sentenced to a 20-month prison term for various acts of corruption – including:
"…’crushing cars,’ the act of towing a civilian's parked car to his lot, crushing it for cash, and claiming to not have it when approached at the counter by a confused motorist”[1]
Now, nearly two hours after discovering my legally parked van missing, I began wondering whether I’d ever get it back. I called Corropolese Towing expecting to hear them disavow any knowledge of my vehicle. Fortunately, they acknowledged taking the vehicle. Although, it turns out, my van was actually taken by a different towing operator: “Krusher1” (boy, did that instill a sense of comfort). All I had to do was give them $200 in cash and they would return my vehicle.
Thus ended the search for my van. After wasting my lunch hour and parting with 200 of my hard-earned dollars, I recovered the vehicle.
I am left with the question: “What is the policy regarding parking and notification of parking violations?”. The January 2007 Perkiomen Woods newsletter contains a very short description. It reads as follows:
There have been a number of cars within our Community that have been tagged and towed due to parking violations. This will be an ongoing effort. If you would like to report an abandoned car or one you believe to be in violation, you must do so in writing to Wentworth or to the Board. Please include the Make, Model, License Plate, and location of the vehicle.
As I read this, it implies the vehicle owner will be notified of any violation. It also implies there would be some time between the report of a problem and towing the offending vehicle. That time surely would permit the owner to be notified – providing an opportunity to remedy the “violation”. This brings several questions to my mind:
According to the towing operator, a police officer was present when they took my van. Surely the police officer could have looked up the registration information – confirming that the current registered owner lives in the Community – indeed, just around the corner.
The action of taking my van appears to be in violation of the Community parking policy. It was also an egregious violation of plain-old decency to leave me “in the dark” for over two hours as to the whereabouts of the vehicle – despite my efforts to contact someone from Wentworth.
As a 16-year resident of Perkiomen Woods, I have paid my monthly association fee in a timely manner, maintained the exterior of my house, and responded promptly to the few violation notices I’ve received.
I feel I am due reimbursement for the $200 I had to pay the towing operator to retrieve my van. Further, it would be appropriate for Wentworth management to provide me a written apology letter for the stress I suffered as a result of the overzealous attempts at enforcing the parking policy. In addition, it might be appropriate review the background of any towing operator contracted to remove vehicles and to post that company’s contact information around the community. That would have mitigated the stress that accompanied several hours of wondering if my van had been stolen. Lastly, I would suggest that calls to your “emergency” phone number receive a prompt response. What’s the point of an “emergency” phone number otherwise?
Please contact me at your earliest convenience to arrange reimbursement and an apology letter. You may reach me at 610-454-0942.
Yours truly,
Art Edwards
Cc: Cliff Keenan
Aprille Cole
Phillip Scheetz
Richard Livergood
David Epstein
Michael A. Mendillo
Frank Peditto
Arthur Bartikofsky
Edward Corless
Neil Mackey
Theresa Beckett
James Magid
Maryann Mulfino
Darlene Rasmussen
Larry Sauer