It's not every day that the state nails a towing company with a $62,000 fine. But it happened the other day in San Antonio.

WOAI-TV caught employees of Bexar Towing breaking state towing firm rules, such as towing cars illegally parked at San Antonio's Greyhound station just minutes after they'd booted those cars -- state law says the vehicle has to remain in place for 24 hours before it can be towed.

And when an undercover operation was launched involving WOAI's Jaei Avila, and Avila approached his booted car while it was being hooked up to a wrecker, Bexar Towing employees denied to Avila that he could pay a lesser fee, called a "drop fee," to get it dropped from the wrecker.

The funniest part, though, is when the guys who own Bexar Towing show up on the scene to confront Avila, the state inspectors and the San Antonio cops who have descended on the wrecker.

Apparently the Bexar Towing guys are graduates of the BP/Tony Hayward School of Public Relations.

As my Facebook friend John Tedesco of San Antonio's Express-News wrote on his blog, this story "has a little bit of everything — outrage, irony, humor, good information, and, at the end, a satisfying conclusion. Buckle up and enjoy the ride."


***
Spotted a good video piece of watchdog journalism? Or a video report on Texas government or politics or government accountability or transparency? Shoot a note to jennifer@texaswatchdog.org.

Photo by flickr user hugo90, used under a Creative Commons license.