California Man in 4-Day Standoff with Abandoned Amazon Truck in Driveway • Hacker News Board

Re: California Man in 4-Day Standoff with Abandoned Amazon Truck in Driveway

#41

Post by voakbasda » Tue, Nov 23, 2021, 3:09 PM UTC

Teever wrote: post #36

bsder wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I think it's highly unlikely that towing is guaranteed to be a profit centre vs. a cost centre in police/city budgets Towing is massively profitable and almost all the companies have a "kickback" arrangement with the local police enforcement. This kind of thing is in the same bin with "civil forfeiture" in the US. The whole idea that the criminal justice system gets ANY money from the criminals themselves sets up s…

Oh I'm aware that someone is making money off towing, I just question the assertion as to whether or not it is a money making activity for local governments, because I have a feeling that on the whole it's a net negative for some places, in part due to the kick-backs you describe.

Yes, the towing racket is a net negative for society, but the kickbacks make it positively pay off for the players involved.

Re: California Man in 4-Day Standoff with Abandoned Amazon Truck in Driveway

#42

Post by hermes8329 » Tue, Nov 23, 2021, 4:34 PM UTC

dehrmann wrote: post #25

Is it even owned by Amazon? If not, complaining to Amazon would be a bit like complaining to them if UPS left a truck in a driveway. That, and if they don't own it, they don't really have the authority to tow a contractor's van.

If it has a gigantic Amazon logo on it and delivers Amazon orders I wouldn't care that is some subcontractor. The blame falls on amazon

Re: California Man in 4-Day Standoff with Abandoned Amazon Truck in Driveway

#43

Post by solarkraft » Tue, Nov 23, 2021, 4:38 PM UTC

dehrmann wrote: post #25

Is it even owned by Amazon? If not, complaining to Amazon would be a bit like complaining to them if UPS left a truck in a driveway. That, and if they don't own it, they don't really have the authority to tow a contractor's van.

It’s a contractor’s. If it was a UPS branded truck they could reach out to UPS. In this case the only thing they seem to know is that the vehicle is in operation for Amazon. So they naturally must reach out to them. And Amazon should at the very least be able to tell which contractors they use in the area, or rather even which contractor delivered a specific package.

Re: California Man in 4-Day Standoff with Abandoned Amazon Truck in Driveway

#44

Post by dehrmann » Tue, Nov 23, 2021, 5:08 PM UTC

hermes8329 wrote: post #42

dehrmann wrote: post #25

Is it even owned by Amazon? If not, complaining to Amazon would be a bit like complaining to them if UPS left a truck in a driveway. That, and if they don't own it, they don't really have the authority to tow a contractor's van.

If it has a gigantic Amazon logo on it and delivers Amazon orders I wouldn't care that is some subcontractor. The blame falls on amazon

This truck had no logos.

Re: California Man in 4-Day Standoff with Abandoned Amazon Truck in Driveway

#45

Post by Txoko » Tue, Nov 23, 2021, 11:20 PM UTC

Call the bomb squad!

Re: California Man in 4-Day Standoff with Abandoned Amazon Truck in Driveway

#46

Post by nullc » Wed, Nov 24, 2021, 4:14 AM UTC

michaelmrose wrote: post #34

nullc wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It costs money to have a car towed off your property. So he's supposed to pay to get rid of amazon's (contractors?) illegal dumping?

It costs the owner money. Calling the cops means they call the tow company and the tow operator expects to recover from the owner.

If you call the tow company directly they'll charge you. At least in some places the police will just respond that if it's on private property its your problem not theirs.