Minneapolis City Council Bans Unregulated "Car Booting" Industry

The city of Minneapolis found the "Car Booting Industry" to be an unregulated, obnoxious practice and they had the good common sense to eliminate it. I hope that Albuquerque will take similar measures to protect it's residents.

According Minneapolis' city council's report:

"...booting companies were observed booting without adequate signage and without proper authorization."

This is exactly what is happening to residents of Albuquerque. The place where my car was booted had signs, albeit graffiti covered, weather-torn, and poorly placed ambiguous ones. The report went on to explain that:

"...several companies also charged unauthorized fees, used intimidating behavior and threatened to have cars towed if booting fees were not paid immediately..."

This too, resonates with observations by people in Albuquerque, including my own. I would definitely say it was "intimidating behavior," not to mention weird. The word "sketchy" also comes to mind. I was being staked out by a creepy, beat-up car with tinted windows. The man inside refused to identify the name of his "business" or to provide so much as a business card or a receipt. I had no way of verifying if he had a legitimate right to boot my car in the first place.

Furthermore, the toll-box was over 50 yards away on the other side of the (mostly empty) lot. His behavior and methods weren't what I would have expected from an actual parking lot attendant.

It was clear to me, as it has been to far too many others, that this "boot man" is intentionally creating the problem in order to provide a solution--at a profit. In other words, it's a racket.



Source: http://www.mndaily.com/2008/06/18/city-council-bans-car-booting