Business & Tech

Memorial Day: No Holiday for Tow Trucks

Pizza Hut was unsympathetic toward attendees of Monday's Memorial Day ceremony, calling a tow truck to have cars removed from the restaurant's lot.

One of the cornerstones of any federal holiday - especially one as patently American as Memorial Day - is free parking. Short of stopping your car in the middle of the Beltway, many of us consider it our holiday right to leave our cars on almost any paved surface, safe in the assurance that parking enforcement is enjoying its own day at the beach.

Not so for the attendees of College Park's annual Memorial Day ceremony, held Monday morning at the Veterans Memorial on the corner of Route 1 and Greenbelt Road. Before festivities began, guests were warned that they should move their cars from the nearby Pizza Hut parking lots -- or their cars would be towed.

Former Dist. 4 councilwoman Mary Cook had to pay $50 to retrieve her car from the tow truck's clutches, even though she caught it before it sped away.

Interested in local real estate?Subscribe to Patch's new newsletter to be the first to know about open houses, new listings and more.

Cook said the manager of Pizza Hut was "exercising her right" to have cars towed from her lot, though Cook pointed out that there was little signage indicating that public parking was not allowed.

"They have one sign -- that's it," Cook said, pointing toward the sign near the edge of Route 1.

Interested in local real estate?Subscribe to Patch's new newsletter to be the first to know about open houses, new listings and more.

Dist. 1 Councilman Patrick Wojahn said he often parks in Pizza Hut's lot during events at the Veterans Memorial, and has never encountered a problem.

"The parking lot is not very crowded right now," he said, gesturing around the empty lot. "I don't see why they couldn't make an exception for this event. It's Memorial Day."

Shelly (who declined to giver her last name), is the manager of Pizza Hut. She said she would not have taken issue with the cars in her lot had she been notified of the event beforehand.

"You can't just assume [you can park] because the city of College Park said it's OK," she said. "Just parking there and just leaving -- that's not right. It's taking away from our customers that actually come in here."

Shelly's husband is also employed with Alley Cat Towing and Recovering, the Hyattsville-based company responsible for towing from Pizza Hut's lot.

Wojahn said city staff will discuss implementing a policy of notifying nearby businesses prior to future events.


Get more local news delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for free Patch newsletters and alerts.

We’ve removed the ability to reply as we work to make improvements. Learn more here