How a downtown Wilmington business took parking enforcement into its own hands
Wilmington officials removed illegally posted parking and towing signs on the 1300 Block of North Market Street on Monday after being alerted to the signage placed by a day care center on the busy downtown block.
Mayor Mike Purzycki’s deputy chief of staff John Rago said a parking enforcement officer and public works transportation representative informed Little Folks Too Daycare, located at 1320 N. Market St., that it is “illegal for the day care center to hire its own towing company and tow vehicles.”
City officials visited the downtown business Monday morning after parking advocate Ken Grant alerted Wilmington of the posted signs at the day care.
“When the city reps arrived, they observed two reserved parking/towing signs that were posted illegally,” Rago said. “One was in the window of the day care center and the other had been attached by the day care center to a city sign posted on the sidewalk.”
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The day care center promptly removed the posting in its window, and was instructed “not to place these signs again,” Rago said.
When reached Monday by telephone, the day care center’s director told a Delaware Online/The News Journal reporter they had no comment and claimed they didn’t know what the reporter was talking about.
Only the city can tow vehicles from public streets, Rago said, and Wilmington currently contracts with City Towing Services, LLC, for towing and impoundment services.
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The last time this happened
This isn’t the first time downtown businesses have hired private tow companies, illegally posted parking enforcement signs and gotten away with it.
In early 2020, the city issued a cease and desist order against National Auto Movers LLC, located at 1000 S. Market St., for illegally towing cars in Wilmington and ordered the company to refund money to anyone whose car it towed.
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Wilmington began investigating the tow company after a car owner reported their car was towed outside of the Queen theater at 5th and Market Streets and news reports surfaced about the issues. Another car was towed outside of the Residence Inn by Marriott in the 1300 block of Market Street, according to News Journal archives.
During that time, city officials warned both the Queen theater and Residence Inn that businesses cannot hire towing companies to tow vehicles off public property.
How Wilmington is responding
Rago said the law department will be issuing cease and desist orders to the day care facility as well as the tow company.
When a similar incident occurred in early 2020, city officials encouraged impacted drivers who had proof they had been towed from public roads to contact the Department of Public Works.
"According to the day care director, no vehicles were towed while the center had this improper arrangement in place," Rago said when asked whether the city would attempt to get money returned to impacted drivers.
Reached by phone Monday, Pink Hookers Towing – a New Castle-based tow company that was listed as the company Little Folks Too had an agreement with to perform private towing – could not confirm whether it had a towing agreement with any North Market Street businesses.
An employee who answered the phone Monday said someone would call a News Journal reporter back but did not do so before publication.
Got a tip? Contact Amanda Fries at afries@delawareonline.com. Follow her on X at @mandy_fries.
This article originally appeared on Delaware News Journal: This downtown Wilmington block had illegally posted parking signs
