LA Tow Truck Crime Ring That Held Crashed Cars Hostage Busted by Police

Local and state officials have filed charges against 16 people allegedly connected to a fraud ring that targeted accident victims in Los Angeles, California. The ring would reportedly send a tow truck to the scene of an accident, haul off the wrecked car, and essentially hold it hostage until the owner paid a substantial amount of money to release it. Scams involving drivers are common, but this plot is more elaborate thanks to the alleged involvement of a corrupt California Highway Patrol employee.

The scam, which law enforcement officials say has become prevalent in Southern California, starts with an accident. Someone hits you (or vice versa), you pull off to the shoulder, and a tow truck immediately shows up offering help. Confused and a little shaken up, you say “Sure.” The driver takes your damaged car to a body shop and refuses to release it until you pay what investigators quantify simply as “a large amount of money.” How large? We don’t know, but the fraud ring reportedly made approximately $217,000 by scamming accident victims in California.

It sounds like a substantial amount of resources went into setting up the scam, and the ring members weren’t simply prowling Californian roads in search of a fender-bender. The investigation started in November 2022, when the Inland Empire Automobile Insurance Task Force discovered that a non-sworn California Highway Patrol employee was selling traffic collision report face pages that listed the personal details of drivers involved in an accident. The ring members bought these, and, armed with addresses and phone numbers, they’d reach out to future victims and pretend to represent their insurance company. They’d then tell the owner that the car was being taken to a body shop for repairs, dispatch a tow truck, and haul the vehicle to a business called Certified Auto in Buena Park in Orange County. Put another way, they were stealing the car.

Certified Auto then asked the owner’s insurance company (the real one, this time) for a cash payment to release the car. If the insurance company agreed to pay, it lost money. If it didn’t pay, which investigators say was usually what happened, the owner needed to pay out of pocket to get their car back.

California officials published a video to warn drivers about accident-related scams. They’ve charged 16 people so far, and it sounds like the fraud ring is no longer active, but that doesn’t mean another one won’t swoop in and try to pull a similar scam. The Department of Insurance is asking drivers to keep an eye out for red flags such as a tow truck showing up minutes after an accident, a towing company telling you where they’re taking the car rather than asking you where it should go, and a tow truck driver asking you to sign documents or saying someone will call you.

The 16 people charged are between the ages of 20 and 72, and this isn’t their first run-in with the law. In 2024, officials busted the same ring for the same basic scam. Last year, it took vehicles to a shop called CA Collision, and its members made over $353,000 before getting caught.

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