In its ongoing recovery effort, the City of Long Beach announced Friday that it will continue to tow vehicles that are either abandoned (with plates removed) or impede removal of debris from city streets in the wake of Hurricane Sandy. The city will also waive its administrative fee. for impounds.
“In an attempt to minimize the inconvenience and burden on the registered car owners, the police department is waiving our $75 administrative fee,” Sgt. Eric Cregeen, a spokesman for the Long Beach Police Department, said in a statement.
The department’s special officers will oversee each impound in conjunction with the city’s contracted tow vendor, the Oceanside-based Impressive Auto Body, the statement said. Impounded vehicles are being secured at Lido West, at 250 Lido Blvd. in Lido Beach.
Car owners whose vehicles have been impounded need to obtain a release from the police department. They are encourage to contact the traffic department at 516-705-7317.
As of Friday, the traffic department has recorded 850 private insurance tows and 359 police department impounds. Cregeen told Patch on Tuesday that after the storm the department received 30 reports of missing vehicles, none of which turned out to be stolen.
“Our detectives ran down every one and we were able to locate every car, which either floated to another location or was towed away,” Cregeen said.
The traffic department provided a detailed account of the towing services that towed storm-damaged cars out of the city.
“They had all out-of-town guys registered that they were bringing in and we knew where every car was from the storm onward,” he said.
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