A woman recently took to TikTok to alert a fellow Portland, Oregon, resident that their car was allegedly towed under questionable circumstances.
In her video, which has been viewed over 166,000 times at the time of writing, TikTok user Carsen Hendrix (@thegrove.esthetics) plays footage of a car being towed in the background of her video while addressing the owner.
What happened?
“Hi, do you own this black Mazda?” she began, calling out to the car’s owner. “You’ve got Washington plates, and you were parked in Northwest Portland, close to Thurman and 26th.”
She quickly clarified that the owner wasn’t imagining things if they felt something was off about the situation.
“You’re not losing your mind. That little ‘No Parking’ sign was not there,” Hendrix explained.
She then described what appeared to be a coordinated towing setup.
“When you parked your car, they added it after you were already parked there and immediately put a tow notice on the corner of your window and towed your car,” she said.
Sympathizing with the situation, Hendrix expressed her frustration. “I’m so sorry that happened to you. That’s so [expletive] up,” she said.
Hendrix offered to help to make sure the owner could take action.
“But please feel free to reach out to me and confirm what your license plate is just so that I know I have the right person and I’m happy to give you all my information and videos of literally everything because I have videos of them putting the sign up,” she said, concluding the video.
Viewers react
In the comments section, viewers speculated what might have caused the towing, while others chimed in with their own frustrating experiences.
“It’s annual leaf sweeping for that zone today the 22nd. NW 2 district if you look up the online map for it,” one viewer pointed out. “Pretty much all cars [are] towed if parked in it. There wasn’t all their signs propped up?”
The Daily Dot confirmed this information. According to the official Portland government site, Leaf Day typically takes place between November and December. KATU News, a Portland TV station, has also reported on similar towing incidents during this time.
That said, sneaky tows like the one Hendrix described are not unheard of.
“Got a $100 dollar ticket in Seattle when they changed street parking to 1 hrs only parking overnight,” shared one commenter. “I lived across the street and parked there every day.”
Another shared a similar story. “I live in Salt Lake City. I parked and they ended up bagging the parking meters ‘no parking’ after I parked,” they explained. “I just happened to have a selfie from when I parked that got me out of the ticket.”
The Daily Dot has reached out to Carsen Hendrix via Instagram and TikTok direct message.
@thegrove.esthetics Can we find this person? I KNOW this ruined their day. @KOIN 6 News #pbot #portland #vancouverwashington #greenscreenvideo ♬ original sound – Carsen- Portland Esthetician
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