Tow
service cheats wrong person
Or
did a state police secretary use her position
to get a drastically reduced towing bill?
By
Fred Mramor
of
the Desert Journal
Carol
Standridge thought the $1,317 a local tow truck operator charged her to
remove the debris of her wrecked camper trailer from Interstate 25 was
excessive and well above what the State of New Mexico allows.
Standridge
should know, she’s a secretary for the New Mexico State Police in Las
Cruces.
Standridge
disputed the All J’s towing company’s after-hours charges - it was
still daylight when the towing company removed her damaged pickup truck
and trailer wreckage from I-25 on Saturday, Aug. 4.
Standridge
said one of the four men charged for on her bill was actually a 13- or
14-year-old boy and that it did not take them four and a half hours to
remove the camper debris from the highway as indicated on the bill. She
said they did not use two flat bed trucks they billed her for.
Unable
to get Edward Mueller - owner of All J’s Towing at 412 N. Date St. in
Truth or Consequences - to adjust her bill and release her pickup truck,
Standridge complained to the New Mexico Public Regulation Commission. The
PRC establishes and enforces New Mexico’s non-consensual towing tariffs.
PRC
investigator Edward Martinez last week said he investigated Standridge’s
complaint and found that All J’s improperly charged for some extra labor
and that it didn’t appear to him that they used the two flat-bed trucks
they billed Standridge for.
Martinez
said an All J’s driver could not satisfactorily explain the charges for
the flat-bed trucks.
Martinez
said he didn’t question the nighttime charges as billed because those
rates do apply on weekends. Martinez said however he will recommend to PRC
regulators that daytime charges be extended to weekends and holidays.
Martinez
said that through negotiation with All J’s owner, he was able to get
Standridge’s bill reduced from the original $1,317 (not including tax
and storage) to $675.48 by Aug. 20.
Standridge
finally paid All J’s $767.33 (22 days storage and tax included) and
retrieved her pickup truck.
Martinez
said that though this case has been resolved, he will forward it to
PRC’s legal department for further action that could result in All J’s
being fined $100,000 per violation of the state’s towing tariff and the
revocation of its towing license.
Neither
is Carol Standridge finished with All J’s. “Because I work for the
State Police, I’m going to do everything I can to make sure he (Mueller)
doesn’t have our contract,” Standridge said.
Despite
Standridge’s accusations and Martinez’s findings, Edward Mueller last
week said he did have four men on the job and for four and half hours as
indicated on the original bill. Mueller said he did use the two flat bed
trucks he charged for.
Mueller
said that in nearly 10 years he has cleaned up after numerous rollovers
and that it sometimes takes eight to 10 hours to complete a job. He said
Standridge’s trailer had rolled over and disintegrated and that “there
was stuff thrown everywhere.”
Mueller
said that when Standridge complained to him about the towing bill she said
she could understand it costing $200 or $300 but that his charges were
ridiculous. Mueller asked Standridge if she had ever paid for a wrecker
truck, insurance and wages.
Mueller
said he told Standridge she made a mess on the highway and that she wanted
him to clean it up for free. Standridge, Mueller said, then informed him
that she worked for the New Mexico State Police and would get to the
bottom of it and will not pay that towing bill. “So I knew it was
coming,” Mueller said.
Mueller
said he thinks Standridge improperly used her position to get her bill
reduced. He said a state police officer, whom Mueller declined to name,
said Standridge should be in trouble for using her position as a
“back-up.”
Mueller
said he has done a lot of work for the State Police in the last eight or
nine years and has never had any problem like this before.
PRC
Investigator Martinez said he is not aware of other complaints against
Mueller.
Mueller
said he did not say, “It’s covered by insurance, isn’t it?” as
Standridge said he did. Mueller said he deals with insurance companies all
of the time and doesn’t want to “screw it up.”
Contradicting
Edward Martinez, Mueller said insurance companies thoroughly scrutinize
all towing bills submitted to them.
Mueller said he is not concerned that he will be subjected to heavy fines
or the loss of his towing license resulting from his dispute with Carol
Standridge.
“I
didn’t do anything wrong,” Mueller said.
“Mrs.
Standridge stated to the PRC that she stayed at the scene until the
vehicles where towed away, which was a lie,” State Police Officer
Freddie De La O said this week.”
“She was there, got her
stuff and left. We were there four hours after the fact trying to get all
the junk picked up. Four and a half hours sounds about right, I was there
for about four hours and they still didn’t have it all picked up. All
J’s initially brought a tow truck for Standridge’s pickup truck and
one flat bed for the debris, I requested a second flat bed. Two flat beds
were used on that job. Yes, All J’s had four men on the job. The charges
didn’t sound outrageous to me.”
“I’ve
seen a lot of accidents in nine years. This was an accident with no
injuries from hell. There was junk all over the place. The trailer
literally exploded. There was no way they could do it with one wrecker,
that’s a fact.”
“The
time charged to pick the stuff up was correct. Eddie Mueller called me as
soon as Mrs. Standridge complained to him and asked me if the charge was
reasonable,” De La O said.
“I
told Eddie that if he’s wrong, he’s wrong and that he’d have to pay
the piper but in this case I think it (the original bill) was fair. In
order to make Mrs. Standridge and the PRC happy he dropped the price. He
wasn’t too happy about it but he did it. I guess it’s a
businessman’s way of settling things,” De La O said.
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