Towing company is told ease up
New warning sign installed at car lot

By Thomas Caywood TELEGRAM & GAZETTE STAFF

WORCESTER — The small towing company under fire for running an allegedly predatory towing operation at a downtown strip mall has been asked by the property owner to be less aggressive in removing unauthorized cars from the lot.

Falcon Recovery has come under criticism from scores of people who have complained after their cars were towed from the parking lot at the Madison Place strip mall between Myrtle and Madison streets.

A story in the Sunday Telegram detailed Falcon’s use of a spotter to call in tow trucks to remove cars one after another all day. The spotter calls in a flatbed tow truck when a motorist parks in the lot but walks away to another place, often to the nearby Registry of Motor Vehicles office.

In some cases, a car towed by Falcon was up on the flatbed before the driver was more than a block or two away from the Madison Place parking lot.

“We’ve asked them to lay low for a couple of days and then change their ways,” said Mark Lederer, property manager for the strip mall’s owner, Szeto Landmark Realty. “We would just like them to be a little more fair.”

The T&G story produced a flood of calls and e-mails to the newspaper from other motorists who said they too have been caught up in the aggressive and coordinated towing operation.

The story also lit up the switchboards at Madison Place with calls from angry motorists, Mr. Lederer said.

“My phone rang off the hook a thousand times since that article,” he said.

In addition to the attempt to rein in the tow company, Mr. Lederer said, a new, more-prominent sign warning people who aren’t patronizing one of the Madison Place businesses not to park in the lot has been placed on the Madison Street side of the property, where most of the unauthorized parking occurs.

The Worcester Police Department issued a revised towing policy in late February. Among other changes, the document added a new requirement for towing companies that, before towing from a private lot, “the motorist needs to be given fair notice that they cannot park there either verbally or via posted sign.”

Police Chief Gary J. Gemme has refused to respond to or acknowledge repeated requests for clarification on city towing policies placed through his office, department spokesman Sgt. Kerry F. Hazelhurst and City Hall.

However, some people who have been towed from the lot and other observers interpret the new “fair notice” policy to mean that any on-site spotter has a duty to notify unauthorized people that they can’t park in the lot, rather than watching them walk away while calling in a tow truck to hook the vehicle.

Falcon Recovery owner Francis R. Whitenett Jr. has said the spotter observed by the T&G works for the strip mall, not the towing company — a statement denied by the property owner, Alexander Szeto of Southboro.

Mr. Lederer, the property manager, also denied that the man works for Madison Place.

Mr. Whitenett declined to comment for this story.