ST. LOUIS — More than a year ago, the I-Team started looking into claims of mismanagement at the St. Louis city tow lot. As of now, authorities have taken notice, from the Board of Aldermen to the state auditor’s office.
The latest discovery to raise suspicions is the possibility that owners of towed cars were supposed to be able to get a cut of the millions of dollars the city made by selling their vehicles at auction.
Larry Lacavich would have been one of those people. In the past two years, he’s had two very different experiences with the St. Louis city tow lot. Those encounters reveal how changes in management have simplified the process of getting a towed car out of impound.
Last month, Lacavich’s truck broke down on the side of the highway. City tow picked it up, and getting it back was surprisingly easy.
“She just said, 'I need your ID,'” Lacavich recalled.
In 2020, getting his car back from city tow after it was stolen and abandoned in St. Louis proved impossible.
“We had all kinds of paperwork and it wasn't enough,” he said. “They already had it designated to be auctioned off.”
Even though Lacavich was a victim of a crime, tow lot management refused to release his work truck, a Ford F-150.
A title search showed that eventually, the truck was sold to a salvage yard in Illinois. Lacavich said his truck would have been worth between $7,000 and $10,000.
“Who in their right mind would crush that truck?” said Lacavich. “Why would you want to crush their truck? And if it went to an auction, goes to the highest bidder, somebody would have bought that truck if it was actually auctioned off, at the auction block. So, nobody would have walked away from a vehicle like that.”
Members of a committee of the St. Louis Board of Aldermen recently determined that Missouri’s unclaimed property law entitles vehicle owners to the proceeds of those sales, minus the fees associated with towing and storing their cars.
“You are supposed to notify them by letter,” Jason Fletcher of the city comptroller’s office told the committee in an October meeting.
In October, the committee questioned the commissioner of the Streets Department, Kent Flake, about why owners weren’t being notified that they could make a claim for the excess money after a sale.
“Does that mean after we auction these vehicles, these people don't get notified there is a surplus of money they could pick up? Is that what I'm hearing?” asked Alderman Brandon Bosley.
“Yep. When we send letters out, we just say we have your car. This is the car we have. We state to come get it, or if not, it will be auctioned,” said Flake.
“That sounds like a policy we need to change,” said Bosley.
Former tow lot commissioner James Mundy told the I-Team’s PJ Randhawa that management doesn’t have a policy in place to return any money to vehicle owners under the state statute.
“That doesn't happen at all,” he said. “Probably because they just don't have to. I mean, nobody, nobody says anything.”
The St. Louis Comptroller’s office confirmed for the I-Team that in the past five years, there have been no claims to get that money.
That means all that money goes back to the city, and it’s a lot.
According to city revenue estimates, the sale of impounded cars generated an estimated $5.9 million since fiscal year 2019. The revised estimate for towed vehicle sale revenue in fiscal year 2021 shows a record haul of $2.4 million.
Despite the ongoing investigation with the potential to force the city to reassess its communications with owners of vehicles going to auction, sales records provided to the I-Team show there are more questions about who’s keeping track of the money.
Copies of forms called "Abandoned Property Bill of Sale" with missing information in the fields for the purchase price, buyer and vehicle details make Mundy suspicious of whether the city can prove how much it got paid.
“Anybody else could just write in the other information,” he said. “I don’t know how they could [know] if they don't have a price tag on these vehicles?”
Even though Lacavich got his truck back this time, he still warns St. Louisans, “Just be careful, don't let the truck, your vehicle get towed there.”
“Once they get their hands on it, the tow lot, you're in trouble, I mean, you're going to be fighting,” he added.
The city’s investigation is expected to take several more months. Some city leaders involved believe criminal charges may result.