My car vanished while I was deployed overseas – it had been towed & sold at auction but I still owe thousands

A NAVY Lieutenant hopped on board a ship while he was paying off his car – then a towing company snatched his vehicle.

The naval officer’s 2011 Mazda 6 was towed from the street, and when he attempted to reclaim it, officials informed him that it had already been auctioned off .

KFMB San Diego

KFMB San Diego

US Navy Lieutenant Jonathan Liongson boarded the USS Bunker Hill in November 2022, according to San Diego-based CBS affiliate KFMB .

Liongson parked the car on the street in front of his home.

During deployment, the officer asked a friend to start the car to ensure it was still running .

He was still paying off his vehicle loan and owed more than $2,000 on the vehicle.

But the friend circled the block trying to find the car. The Mazda was nowhere in sight.

“It sucked when I heard my car was potentially missing,” Liongson told the station.

“But that couldn’t get in the way of what I needed to focus on during that deployment.”

He returned home four months after the phone call and immediately called his police department.

Officers told the lieutenant his vehicle had been towed to a nearby lot.

Tow operators snatched the vehicle from the side of the road after identifying that the registration had not been adequately updated.

When Liongson arrived at the lot, the navy officer discovered even more bad news.

“I asked them, ‘Could you run this plate through the system please,’ and they told me that, unfortunately, that vehicle has been auctioned off,” he said.

The Mazda spent two months on its lot before the sale and racked up around $6,000 in storage fees.

The towing company sold the vehicle for $1,200.

What to do if your car is towed

Wrongfully or not, retrieving a towed vehicle can be a hassle.

If your vehicle is towed after parking in a “No Parking” zone or other legitimate reason, there are a few steps to take to get it back.

Steps to take when your car is towed:

• Try to figure out why your car was towed. Did you not see a posted “No Parking” sign? Did you miss a car payment? Did you return to a lot where you have unpaid citations? Finding the reason can narrow down the phone numbers to dial.
• Locate the vehicle. Most states, cities, or counties require towing companies to leave some form of contact information via a posted sign or sent by mail.
• Recovery dates and times depend on the company that towed the vehicle, but those times will be posted to the website or can be recited by a representative.
• Pay the fees. Be careful to be as prompt as possible, as some tow yards may charge storage fees by the day.

If you feel your vehicle was wrongfully towed, contesting the action can be done with the following steps:

• Be prompt – many states have a small window of time where it’s acceptable to file a complaint against a company that wrongfully towed the vehicle.
• Gather supporting documents: photos, emails, receipts, police reports, and witness statements if applicable. The more evidence, the better.
• Get familiar with your local laws, as laws for towing companies vary per state.
• Try speaking with the towing company. Sometimes it may have been a simple oversight, and the matter can be resolved quickly.
• Contact the Justice of the Peace in your area, as they may have more insight or resources to help. They are often utilized for towing cases.
• Talk to a lawyer. Many lawyers have free case consultations, and depending on the case, it may be worth it to utilize a lawyer.

Source: Oregon Department of Justice , National General , Rak Law Firm

Now, the towing company is facing allegations it violated federal laws, according to KFMB.

The Servicemembers Civil Relief Act, or SCRA, is a federal law that provides legal protections to active-duty military personnel.

The national law includes relief from certain civil obligations like loans, leases, and updated registration during deployment.

It ensures that servicemembers can focus on their duties without the distraction of legal and financial burdens.

Regulators said that because the SCRA safeguards servicemembers from certain legal actions without their knowledge, towing and auctioning a naval lieutenant’s car while they’re deployed could violate this law.

A US Attorney General filed a complaint this week on behalf of the lieutenant, KFMB reported.

But Liongson said drivers getting ready for deployment can better avoid the headache by taking their cars off the street.

“If you want to prevent that from happening, make sure you put your car in a very safe place,” he said.

“Sometimes these things happen, especially for younger folks and junior officers such as myself who don’t always know about these things until, unfortunately, after the events.”