This story originally appeared in The Lede. For more or to subscribe, visit www.birminghamlede.com

Imagine parking your car in a downtown lot, only to return and find your car has disappeared. It happened to Helen Hays on the evening of Dec. 23.

”I was out with my nephew and friends and parked in one of the ParkMobile green spots/lots downtown. I paid for 2 hours via the app. Over $6,” the 56-year-old from Gardendale said in a Facebook post. “I was over my time limit by maybe 30 minutes I guess but when I came back to get my car and go home, it was gone.”

That was the beginning of a frightening ordeal that involved a towing service and a gun at the same downtown lot that saw a man shot and killed in a dispute with a parking service employee last fall, Hays said later in an interview. That shooting was later ruled a justifiable homicide by the Jefferson County District Attorney’s office.

Hayes continued her story about what happened on Dec. 23:

“The horrible thing about it is there was nothing to tell me who took my car and where they took it. I mean, I could have thought it was stolen… I called back to my family, and they’re like ‘You’re sure you’re in the place where you parked it?’ and I said, ‘Yeah I’m sure,’ but there was a truck in my space.”

Her nephew gave her the first clue of what had happened.

”He said, ‘Oh. I bet they towed your car and I bet this is where it is,’ Because he’s had it happen to him and several of his friends,” she said.

Her brother-in-law took her to the Parking Enforcement Systems lot on 5th Avenue South. Hays saw her car through the open gate at the lot where the car had been towed. She walked in, got into her car and began to leave.

”They closed the gate on me,” she said. “Then they made me get out of my car. … It was 10 degrees, and I’d been standing outside, trying to figure out this whole situation.”

“I said, ‘Ok, I’ll pay you. I’ll pay you.’ And [the parking attendant] said, ‘Nope, you’re going to have to get out of the car.’ And we went through that for a few minutes. I said, ‘I just want to sit in my car and be warm and I’ll pay you and you can let me go.’”And she goes, ‘Nope. You’ve got to get out of your car and you’ve got to walk to the other side of that gate.’ And that’s when she lifted up her jacket and showed me her gun. … It’s the same lot where that guy got shot.”

Hays said she went outside the gate where she was allowed to pay the attendant $160 – the armed attendant had a card reader — to get her car released.

When contacted by The Lede, a representative for Parking Enforcement Systems refused to comment or to answer questions on the record for this story.

Hays referenced the shooting of Adarius Jamar Peterson, 29, of Birmingham, who was found dead inside the fence at the Parking Systems Enforcement lot at 2605 5th Ave. South on Sept. 29, 2022. Police said that Peterson, who had a car at the lot, was involved in an argument with a parking enforcement employee that escalated into shots fired. A 31-year tow truck driver was initially detained, but after the District Attorney’s Office ruled the shooting a justifiable homicide, no charges were filed.

A history of complaints

Hays said nothing on the Park Mobile app interface gave her any indication of what had happened to her car, or what could happen if you get to your space later than the term you’ve paid for.

”What do you do if you don’t know where it’s been taken and by whom it’s been taken?… There was no notification that my car was being towed, and then, once my car was towed, there was no notification of where it had been towed to and who had towed it… If you’re from out of town, how are you going to know?”

Hays said that since the incident, she has learned that at one of the several entrances to the lot where she parked, there were phone numbers she could call. But not at the entrance she used at the time.

Yelp is filled with similar negative reviews of Parking Enforcement Systems, a company that supplies towing services for many downtown lots, including the main Birmingham office of AL.com and The Lede. Users on Yelp give the company only a 1-star rating. No other star options are chosen.

On the Facebook group I Believe in Birmingham, a post at the end of September about the shooting at Parking Enforcement garnered nearly 200 comments and reactions, several of which shared similar stories to Hays.’

Posts and comments such as these span the Facebook page from as early as 2018 to just a few months ago. There are also negative comments about the company’s engagement with the public on the social media site Nextdoor.

City of Birmingham’s response

Birmingham City Councilor LaTonya Tate, a member of the council’s public safety committee, did respond to questions about Parking Enforcement.

”I have been made aware of this issue to date. And do have plans to investigate this issue further,” said Tate in an email to a Lede reporter. “Thanks for this update.”

Rick Journey, director of communications for the city of Birmingham, noted that the city does not employ the towing companies that pull cars from parking lots.

”The city does not remove vehicles from lots. The city only removes vehicles from streets and alleys and only due to public safety matters such as blocking access, wrecked or inoperable vehicles,” Journey said.

He pointed out that the ParkMobile app is not directly connected to the towing companies either.

”Owners of private parking lots are allowed to use tow companies to remove vehicles from lots for non-payment. The management and enforcement of those lots are handled privately by those property owners,” Journey said.

Journey pointed out, however, that Birmingham city ordinance does contain potential remedies for some towing issues. If towing companies fail to comply with municipal towing ordinance rules, they could receive a summons to appear before a municipal court judge who could levy a fine of up to $500, Journey said.

Some of the rules in the ordinance include providing car owners with a location to come retrieve their vehicle and performing duties “in a courteous and professional manner.”

A Birmingham Police spokesman said BPD has an officer “specifically assigned to handle business complaints as well as maintaining compliance.” However, the department did not offer a further response to the towing issue by publication time.