People In Wilkinsburg Say Their Cars Are Being Towed With No Warning

WILKINSBURG (KDKA) -- Several people are frustrated after their cars were towed from parking spots they've used for almost a year in Wilkinsburg with no problems.

They're claiming they came back from work to see them all gone without any warning or notice.

Amy Lyn Elliott came back to the lot of a building that has sat vacant at the corner of Penn Avenue and Pitt Street to find her car was not there Friday Evening, and it wasn't stolen.

"All the cars were gone," she told KDKA.

She wasn't alone. According to her, about 25 cars in all were towed from the lot. She said they've been using it for the past year or so without any issues or warnings.

"I'm walking up, and I'm thinking I'm pretty sure I parked here. We were all thinking that we had lost our minds," Elliot recounted.

According to her, they used the lot because the park and ride lot as well as side streets fill up quickly and leave no parking. On Saturday, KDKA found signs that said "Private Property: No Parking. Violators will be towed at the owner's expense."

Elliot said that those signs were not there Friday morning.

"There is no way 25 of us would have been negligent enough to just park there anyway," she said, adding that in the past a property owner would chain off the lot if they didn't want people parking there.

According to Elliot, they had to pay $290 to get their cars back, and some people have to wait until Monday to get their cars out.

Elliott understands if the property owner didn't want them parking there. She would have liked a warning before it got to this.

"A lot of us are just trying to find a place to park so we can get to work every day," she told KDKA.

We found the owner of the property in the Allegheny County records. When we stopped by their office, there was no answer with it being the weekend.

The owners, Wilkinsburg RE 2 reached out to KDKA's Chris Hoffman and said they signs went up on December 12 and have tried to chain it multiple times.

According to them, they can't have people parking in their lot due to liability purposes.

Elliott, however, said they may look into fighting this in court.