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‘It’s like a hunt’: Businesses and customers fed up with ‘aggressive’ towing at Harrisburg strip mall

HARRISBURG, Pa. – Shop owners and customers at the Uptown Plaza strip mall on 7th and Division streets say they have been beleaguered by a towing company ...

HARRISBURG, Pa. - Shop owners and customers at the Uptown Plaza strip mall on 7th and Division streets say they have been beleaguered by a towing company that they say is aggressively towing vehicles from the parking lot at a frenetic pace.

They say a Dauphin County tow truck company called Mid-Atlantic Auto Recovery Services--or MARS--has been towing vehicles for any and all violations.

"They're sitting ducks," Tiaunna Banks, a worker at the strip mall, said. "They're just doing it to get the money."

"It's like a hunt," Brandon Danzey, another worker, said. "He comes out of nowhere and he's on a hunt and he just grabs the cars and it's like it doesn't matter who is in there, if there's somebody in there they don't even check, they don't do any of that, they pick the car up and they go."

Many of the violations involve cars parked on or over the painted lines in the lot. Others are ones that are towed after double-parking in what property management considers a fire lane, although the yellow curb on the fire lane makes many think it's a loading zone.

And now, a class action lawsuit has been filed against MARS by a Susquehanna Township woman who alleges the signage at the shopping center was inadequate, Ellen Mussaf, the lead plaintiff in the lawsuit, confirmed to FOX43 Friday night.

"He literally sits over there by the blue dumpsters and then he lurks and as soon as somebody stops here, say you want to let somebody out, next thing you know he's in front of your car picking your car up," a customer who identified himself as Theodore said.

One business had already moved down the street earlier this month, partially because of the towing practices.

But the folks at Beer King, now located on Division Street, were unable to avoid a parting gift from MARS.

"We were trying to move our cooler out to move over to this place," Joseph Wright, a worker at Beer King, said. " We had a truck in the front to let our cooler up, but they picked the truck up and stuff and charged us $120 dollars to put it down."

Other businesses said Friday they were considering moving as well. They say they have also heard very little about the towing practices from the landlord, and believe they are running out of options on how to deal with this. Attempts to reach MARS and the landlords were unsuccessful.

"It's ridiculous because you can see him circling, circling, circling, waiting on somebody to just park the wrong way," Banks said.

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