PORTLAND, Ore. – A handful of people attending midnight church services Friday night had their cars towed.
It appears to be some sort of miscommunication between the Central Lutheran Church and the Zeller Chapel of the Roses funeral home across the street.
Neighbor Jaecen Funk witnessed the cars being towed.
“I see three tow trucks just drive into the parking lot real fast, and they all line up behind cars,” Funk said. “And then I saw one guy jump out and runs over … writes down some information then runs back to his car, and I guess they just started towing some cars out of there.”
The funeral home lets the church members use its parking lot on Sundays but it began towing cars from its lot because so many criminals were using it to park their getaway vehicles.
There’s a sign on the office door of the church warning churchgoers about the policy and that the church has authorization to use the lot during Sunday services.
One of the churchgoers who had his car towed was Rick Schultz and he said he watched as the tow company hauled off cars from the lot.
“So I stood in front of one of the cars they were backing up to and I said, ‘You’re not taking any more cars. We have permission to park here!’” said Schultz. “And he said, ‘Well, tough buddy because – just get out of the effin’ way because we’re towing these cars.’”
Schultz said it was the “worst Christmas Eve ever” and his daughter cried at first because she thought their car had been stolen.
According to the funeral home, the church never let them know there was a midnight service on Christmas Eve. Without a notice from the property owner, Retriever Towing said it was just doing what it is supposed to do which is to tow unauthorized vehicles. The company said it towed four cars that night.
Three people paid more than $200 each to get their cars back. A fourth car is still at the tow yard.
Funk said he would hate to see it happen again.
“(I) said to my girlfriend: I was like, ‘I think those cars parked over there are probably for the church.’ So I kind of thought that was kind of messed up that they were actually towing people,” he said.
The people at the funeral home said they certainly would not have had churchgoers’ cars towed on Christmas Eve if they’d gotten a notice there were going to be services last Friday night.
KATU News was unable to reach anyone at the church for comment.
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