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THERE IS A NEW POLICY BY The parking lot by caesar’s bay where there is a toys r us and babies r us (near the water where many frum yidden go for tashilich ) it has become a private parking lot. the parking lot agency has “men” who watch people and if they dont go straight into the store and head towards the water they will tow your car within MINUTES! they will then charge you over a hundred bucks to get the car back!!
PLEASE let eveyone know about this new “policy” these crooks came up with!
If it happens to you, perhaps you can buy something from one of the stores and then use the receipt as proof that you were a customer shopping.
(I’m not suggesting this strategy to preplan it, but an an out if someone was already towed.)
Are there signs that it’s a private lot, and not to park there?
elik
. . .it has become a private parking lot. . .
No, it has always been a private parking lot.
PLEASE let eveyone know about this new “policy” these crooks came up with!
They are not “crooks.” The crook is someone who uses their property without their permission. Their permission is extended only to customers.
Six months ago I posted a thread here entitled Driveway Blocking In Borough Park which you can still read at http://www.theyeshivaworld.com/coffeeroom/topic/driveway-blocking-in-borough-park
I remain mystified as to how some people believe they have the right to violate both the laws of the city and state of New York as well as halacha.
If they have men watching it’s probably because people were abusing . It is not good for their business if potential customers don’t shop because spots closet to the store are tken by non-shoppers. My suggestion is to get on the Belt at 14th Avenue and drive i/2 mile to the parking area provided ( it has about 20 spots ) on the right hand side
ANY parking lot (except city ones) are private property and the owners can let anyone or not let anyone park there.
The owners only want customers park there, they pay the taxes and upkeep of the lot and are responsible for anything that happens in the lot (ie someone gets mugged, the owners are responsible)
They are probably towing cars now as its summer and people think they can park there for free and go to the beach
Thank you, Zahavasdad for answering the first two questions posed by elik.
elik,
3) why are the signs unclear not stating who can park there??
The sign is actually irrelevant; it’s the law that counts. This is the same problem as in my driveway thread, namely that people take liberties with the property of others. The driveway belongs to the property owners. You need their permission to use it.
Under the law (as well as halacha) you have permission if you are a customer. You have no permission if you are not a customer. It’s really quite simple.
I am not the only person in Brooklyn who wishes he could afford such a “staff” at my private driveway.
Please reconsider your views.
I believe there is a sign saying parking for customers only. So I don’t see how they can be faulted for enforcing it. That being said, it’s a pretty hard thing to enforce unless they witness someone park and immediately leave the shopping area. And even then it is possible the customer intended to (and did) shop after sitting down by the ocean first.
there’s no beach there
There is a walkway along the water. People park and use the ballfields nearby.
Looks like towing is effective deterent.. I’m going to start calling tow trucks every time people block my driveway.
I’m going to start calling tow trucks every time people block my driveway.
I don’t think you can do that. If a car is parked in your driveway you can have it towed (there may be signage requirements) but if it is on the street than it is up to the police to tow it (if they choose to).
“I’m going to start calling tow trucks every time people block my driveway.”
My neighbor called the police when someone blocked his driveway. The police ticketed the car and told him that he could now call a tow truck and have it towed away.
“I remain mystified as to how some people believe they have the right to violate both the laws of the city and state of New York as well as halacha.”
Regarding tashlich, I would suggest that some community leaders approach the owner and ask permission to use the lot for that purpose.
The Bronx Zoo keeps one of their pedestrian entrances open on the first day of Rosh Hashanah so that the Jews of the Bronx can walk to the Bronx River for tashlich. They probably figure that it is a good business practice; on Yom Tov afternoons many frum Jews can be found in the Zoo.
elik: They give you the option on the spot to not tow, for a $110 fee? What’s the fee and pickup location if they already towed the car?
in most places there are signs stating that the parking lot is for those shopping in the stores adjacent to them
they are not for picnicking etc
@charliehall-
How is the fact that the zoo has frum visitors on Yom Tov good for business?
+1 exhibits = good for business
Perhaps he means Chol Hamoed. Wednesdays are free, and the zoo is in fact, packed. As a member of the WCS I take my kids any other day of the week, but never on Wednesday.
“signs that were not clear”…”parking there for 20 years it seems like it was a public lot”
What was not clear about the signs?
And you’re right, if I have been stealing from you for 20 years and have gotten away with it, I should be able to continue to steal from you and get away with it.
I’m not sure they can charge you $110 for hooking up your car to a tow truck and threatening to tow it away.
This comes from the website of the NYC Department of Consumer Affairs. (at nyc.gov use the pull down menu on left for consumer affairs – or search for “towing fees”)
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Towing rates from private parking lot
– Towing and three days of storage: $100
– Fourth day of storage and after: $10 per day
– “Drop fee” (for unhooking a car that is about to be towed): $50
If your car is towed for blocking a driveway, the maximum fee is $100 plus tax and $10 per day storage fee after three days.
WHO TO CALL WHEN YOUR CAR IS…
They must remove the boot within 30 minutes, must accept payment by credit card, and may charge no more than $25.
If your car is booted and towed from a private parking lot, the maximum fee is $25. If the car is towed from a private lot without booting, the maximum fee is $100.
There is no maximum rate for booting on private streets. The booting fee for private streets must be on file with Consumer Affairs. The fee must be conspicuously posted on signs at all entry access streets that intersect with public streets.
please be careful if you go for tashilich
Their parking lot is HUGE. I can understand not wanting “non-customers” to park in the spaces closest to the stores, but further away?? Unless most spots are filled, I still see no reason to cause agmas nefesh and have a car towed. I understand it’s private property, but if it’s an empty lot, built to “house” hundreds of cars, what’s the problem?
m22
This is how they create revenue in a depressed economy.
And technically it is a private lot.
I guess halacha is on their side. If they own the property, whether it seems morally right or wrong, they are in the right.
i agree momma its not nice maybe some anti semitism in play maybe a boycott of that store is in order
mitzva habo alyedei avairo
My name is Rachel and I was just at the Caesar’s Bay parking lot to go shopping, and you know what ? They changed their name, the tow druck drivers are now called “Custom Wreckers” and I heard that they were called “Authorized Wreckers” right after Fastway Towing. Please, please do not park your car in the lot even if you went shopping and want to take the kids to the water. Watch out, they tow your car, and demand cash, a lot of money… like $200 dollars. They don’t want you to go to water even if your kids want to take run around. Beware, they have these big guys in tow trucks and other people in cars they look and look to find you to see where you go.
If you went shopping first and then to the water, how could they even know you aren’t still shopping — unless they are keeping track and following thousands of shoppers after they park, following them into the stores and following them to the water — all the while keeping track of which shopper own which one of the hundreds of cars parked in the lot?
And if they towed, you could prove it was their error by producing the shopping receipt (and denying leaving the mall area.)
Shein,
so you’re saying it’s ok to lie and cheat just so you can park your car. If the signs say parking for shoppers only, thats what they mean. It’s not hard for them to spot you. All they look for is someone depositing thier shopping bags in the car before heading to the water.
Cone on, lesschums… you gotta use a little yiddishe kup! That would be quite silly, wouldn’t it? Either you take your shopping bag with you to the water or if you really must deposit it into your car, dash back into one of the stores for two minutes before slipping out the Ocean.
(Hey, you could even do that without shopping altogerher. heheheh. But if you get a receipt for even a two-dollar product it serves as an insurance policy if there’s an issue.)
Y’know, a $250 towing fee is highway robbery far above anything reasonable and halachic.
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Sadly, that did not work for a woman who went shopping and after she put her shopping bags into the trunk she went to buy her kids ice cream from the truck. They towed her car. I watched in horror. They said she left the lot and they wanted over $200 in CASH. They told her to go to an ATM and take it out, they did not care that she did go shopping in the stores. Watch out they are a bunch of crooks. They DO follow people they stay in the front of the entrance, the cars parked in the front is all for them, its the same cars all day long, they stay there to watch and then call the tow truck drivers. Custom Wreckers of Caesar’s Bay that’s their new name.
That’s why I’m tellin ‘ya to first go into one of the stores (best is Toys R Us since its closest to the water) and after spending two minutes inside go directly to the water. Do not stop at your car between leaving the store and leaving the parking lot / going to the water.
There is a very small parking lot in the bank where I sometimes have business to take care of. The lot is meant ONLY for bank customers. I went there and the lot was almost full, but there was a spot available and I was about to pull into the driveway to go there, when another car got there first. OK. They got there first. BUT… the woman preceeded to go to a store next DOOR to the bank, with her kids. She was not going into the bank. I ended up paying for a parking space, finsished my banking, and went into that same store next door to shop. The woman was still there with her children. I had been in the bank for around twenty minutes or so.
I finished my shopping quickly, and the woman coincidentally did as well. We both went out the store and she went to her car and drove off. She never went into the bank for any reason, so there is no kaf zechus here for her parking in a spot meant for bank customers. And yes, it was a frum woman, someone I recognized from the neighborhood. I should have said something to her, but her kids were there, and I didn’t want to get into an argument on the street.
People may think it is harmless to park for “just a short while” in an illegal space, but it is really stealing from the person who a) is not able to legitimately use it, and b) the owner of the space who designated it for HIS business puprposes. it is this same mentality that allows someone to thoughtlessly block someone’s driveway, “just a little,” thereby preventing them from easily parking without going up on the sidewalk or having difficulty angling in.
If you stay one day, you see, they tow cars left and right, and collect illegal fees of $200 and higher in cash, they supposed to take 2 forms of payments cash and credit and they don’t. They must make $10,000 a day illegally. You do the math, they are there from 11 am to 10 pm that’s 11 hrs, they tow at least 5 cars per hour, that’s 55 cars in one day x $214.00 each car, that comes out to over $11,000 per day.
Anyway, I will park somewhere else not in the parking lot.
So, call the cops, or one of the local politicians who are bored and need something to do. Try the city advocates office. He is always looking for something to do.
You may also want to consider that the owners of the real estate firm that owns the proerty in question are jews.
For what it is worth, instead of stopping at bay parkway, get on the belt for a couple of exits and go to coney island, brighton or manhattan beach.
How about go tashlich somewhere else, the lot belongs to the stores stop trying to bend the laws to your needs.
Dear Whiteberry,
I will be in contact with one of the local politicians. The owners of this real estate firm, Caesar’s Bay is NOT Jewish. They are gangsters – Italian – mafia.
Dear The Goq,
Obviously they have bend the laws to their needs. The law says to take credit card, guess what ? they don’t . Everyone has to pay in CASH that’s bending the laws to their needs my friend, so that they don’t have to report their CRIMES. Thank you.
There is a great Target just past Starrett City on the Belt Parkway. Cheaper prices than Toys R Us
Rachel you are trying to get free parking guess what we dont live on a monopoly board (though if u follow the white collar thread some may be going directly to jail) that lot is for shoppers only, there are tons of places to do tashlich without stepping on anyone’s toes. go elsewhere, as to your assumption that they are gangsters? all the more reason not to mess with them.
“And if they towed, you could prove it was their error by producing the shopping receipt (and denying leaving the mall area.)”
You criticize me for being a vegetarian which is such a horrible aveirah – but here you area, saying it’s completely fine to lie to get away from this?
Sorry, any respect I might have had for your opinion just went down the drain.
The same problem at Rite Aid in Flatbush on Nostrand. If they see you leave the premises with your car in their parking lot you will be towed. Many ppl park & buy at Rite Aid, then run across to the cleaners. Don’t do it–you run the risk of being towed. The tow truck guys sit there & when they see you come back with the dry cleaning bags they hook up your car.
Dear The Goq,
I will write to every politician until my fingers bleed. I have already started. I will make sure my complaints get processed. Have a good day.
If there are so legal then why they keep changing their name? And have broken down buildings as their addresses? And they were convicted of fraud for this towing in August.
I will write to every politician until my fingers bleed. I have already started. I will make sure my complaints get processed. Have a good day.
Have any of you called the police about these guys demanding $200 cash? You might get faster results than if you wait to hear back from politicians.
TCG: Right. I’m sure you were receptive about the criticism of being a vegetarian until now. Tell me about it.
Shrek: By time you get back from the cleaners, you are at your car already. So how can they tow it once you are in the car, motor running?
wanderingchana, the police do not care, which makes me wonder, if they are in on it and get a cut. Makes you also question, why you never hear about this on the news, even though this is happening to many people. It is pure blackmail.
If the tow truck is in the lot, it will take them only 10 seconds to back up and hook your car. They are professional low lives they practice this. This is the only thing they do in life is hook cars and take your money. Beware.
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