After dropping off her son at JFK who was heading back to Israel at JFK Monday night, a resident submitted the following warning. Please be careful about leaving the car for only a moment and reading in detail the submission below.
“When dropping off passengers:
1) The driver should stay in the car, actively unload, and leave the trunk open.
2) Do not leave the car empty with a closed trunk. Even for a second. The car will be towed even if you are standing two feet from your car. They are super fast.
It happened to me on Monday night at Terminal 1. We had just closed the trunk, and I stood maybe three feet from my car, saying goodbye. Less than a minute later, my car was rolling away. We stopped the driver.
He wanted $50 to release my car. If he had towed it away to the lot, it would have been $100.
I called the police; the Port Authority police arrived; they were polite but stated that the car was “unattended”. I had to pay the money. Multiple tow trucks are waiting for the traffic director to point out cars. It seems he is in on the “job” and collects some money from it.
While we were waiting for the police to arrive, the traffic director was angry that the tow truck was stuck waiting for police when there were more cars he could be towing away.
I was by a Levaya many years ago at JFK, and they were literally towing cars left and right without asking people to attempt to move their vehicles. Instead, they demanded cash, which seemed very corrupt, as if they were being paid off under the table.
Please pass this critical information on to family and friends to inform them.”
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Sorry, but that’s not “corrupt”. Overzealous, absolutely. But what about this makes it in any way corrupt?
Please update your headline and stop trying to make everyone out to be villains
Perfect Performance.
And Thats Exactly How you prevent Car Bombs from happening .
“I stood maybe three feet from my car, saying goodbye. Less than a minute later, my car was rolling away”
Stop exaggerating. In reality, you were probably a lot farther from your car than that and for a few minutes. Otherwise you would have noticed a tow truck and traffic director approaching and then hooking up your car.
Why is corrupt Kathy Hochul who controls the Port Authority letting this happen? Don’t vote for her. And shame on the people / “askanim” who “endorsed” her.
Actually the real story is she probably was yentting to her on kissing and hugging him. Maybe he went inside. Hahaha lets keep it going. If she was standing next to her car there would be no time to have it load cause they see her there.
Please beware the Town of Hempstead at the direction of Supervisor Don Clavin and Councilmembers Laura Ryder and Melissa Missy Miller plan to be blocking off Broadway in Hewlett and Woodmere next Sunday for an art festival no one goes to …. please contact their offices and ask them to not issue a permit!
I agree with the majority of texts that states the obvious.The was unattended!
The “traffic directors” at JFK, especially at Terminal 4, are arrogant bullies who target Jews because we have large families with a lot of luggage to load and unload. If you’re waiting for an arriving flight, don’t even think about waiting at T4. Go to the cell phone parking lot or one of the lines where the Ubers wait on the side of the road.
The incident above happened to me at night. It was noisy. I WAS standing about 3 feet from the back of my car. I couldn’t see the front of my car, because of a van was blocking the view. It was shocking, because the car started rolling just after my niece went back to check for any forgotten items. ( I suspect he started the hook-up while she was still in the car.)
If I had left the car unattended and gone inside,or stood “schmoozing and kissing” I would not have submitted this piece. I wanted to warn my community that there was no warning, just trigger- happy traffic directors and tow truck drivers. And I was right there! They are quick!
I am shocked at some of the responses!
The exact thing happen to me while I was dropping my cousin of to the airport. I came out of the car to help my cousin with her suit case and to get some information about her suitcase because English is not her first language . By the time I turned around there was tow truck was there trying to tow my car. I had to pay $ 50. I was so upset. It was not even 5 minutes. This law have to change. Just imagine you dropping your love ones off you can’t even give them a proper good bye or safe travels. Everything is so rushed. It’s all about the money! They don’t care and it’s very sad
This happened to me aswell. This is a total trap. I went to drop off my friend and show her airline checking spot and was back in 1minute. The security there kept looking at us, while we were taking pictures outside the terminal. He didn’t warn us about us getting towed, rather it seemed more like a well orchestrated trap. For one minute I went in, and when I was back the tow was already attached to my car. This is totally planned and I had to pay 50 to get rid of it. They wanted the money in cash and it felt very scammy. I’m a big rule follower,
The security should’ve been made clear when he saw us outside the car as he kept staring at us as we were the new ones they can scam on and rather left us ignorant for the money they get from informing that we left the car unattended.
Same situation happened with me too.
They are just not only greedy, but very cunning too!
I’m a taxi driver. I was helping an elderly passenger with her luggages and taking them over. I was a few feet away. I turned around and saw the tow truck backing up to my car. Two security guards and the tow driver demanded $50 to release or else, they would tow my car. I was arguing with them and explaining what I was doing, they would not listen to me!
I think like they all work as a ring, look for the prey and split money from their victims! They should be investigated!
I’m sure they
It almost happened to me as well. Only I was sitting in my car when towing truck was driving toward my car and quickly drove away. In his face expression was like there was nothing wrong with towing a car with driver in it. It is more stupid than corrupt. I get the policy, but lack of signs that would indicate where to park is a problem. People at the airport terminals barely speak any English.
It used to be that you drive to JFK, park your car in the garage without any worries, come back and then drive away freely. Now, it appears that entire JFK is under construction, and the only way how to freely park your car is to reserve a spot ahead of time. (Will it guarantee that you will be able to park a car freely, who knows.) it is sad that it came to this. I am guessing that this is another way to still money from travelers and their loved ones to fund another stupid policy that makes no sense. This is a well orchestrated strategy to raise NYC revenue at the expense of travelers and/or those who came to them up.