New Yorker sues apartment building for creating ‘illegal’ evacuation zone and ‘stealing’ car

A woman, furious that her car was towed, has filed a lawsuit alleging it was illegally taken away by an apartment building that is “terrorizing” her Upper West Side neighborhood by using a public street as a “private parking lot,” The Post has learned.

Melinda Scott accuses 21 West Avenue Apartments of putting up a “No Parking Zone” sign in Liberty Square south of Lincoln Square without city permission and using a Coney Island company that charges exorbitant towing fees to move cars. her costume on Thursday and an exclusive interview with The Post.

“They terrorize their neighbors by occasionally towing cars to Coney Island, where neighbors are extorted (with) exorbitant rates to get their cars back — and aggressively argue with neighbors over off-street parking spaces,” the UWS resident said. The Post.

Scott, the attorney who brought the case on her own behalf, says that on Dec. 30, she parked her 2018 Audi Q7 at Freedom Place South between West 61st Street and West 60th Street. mid-early morning at 2:30 a.m.,” the Manhattan Supreme Court lawsuit says.

When Scott, who lives nearby on Riverside Boulevard, went to look for answers at an apartment building next to a parking space, the front desk staff told her that Ben and Nino’s auto repair shop had towed her car “because they unofficially reserved all the parking spaces.” on the site, court documents say.

“To claim that Freedom Place South, a city street, is their only private property and private parking is outrageous,” the lawsuit says.

Contributed by Melinda Scott

Helaine Seidman for the NY Post

Advertising

Scott says the city’s Department of Transportation only allows non-city tow signs to be used in private parking lots, and the no-parking sign doesn’t have all the information required by law, such as the cost of towing, her court papers. Show.

Scott also looked to her local 20th Precinct and Coney Island 60th Precinct for more information, finding that neither issued a legally required writ to tow her vehicle, the lawsuit says.

The building and the towing company “had no legal right to rent [Scott’s] vehicle” which “was legally parked on a street open to public traffic”. [and] was not at the intersection and did not block the passage, ”the statement says.

Contributed by Melinda Scott

Contributed by Melinda Scott

Advertising

Helaine Seidman for the NY Post

Advertising

The building, its managers, and the towing company “conspired…to prevent any vehicle from being parked at Freedom Place South in unofficially reserved parking spaces,” the lawsuit says.

The Coney Island auto shop is demanding $606 to return her car, Scott told The Post.

“I leave the car there because I consider it extortion and I don’t think they have the right to take the car,” Scott said. “I think they terrorized the neighbors for months doing this.

“I wanted to file a lawsuit to stop them and force them to remove the sign and stop them from towing cars from our area.”

The lawsuit alleges that the defendants harassed nearby residents and Scott by leaving flyers on their cars, “verbally threatening” them, and towing “several cars” off the street.

Scott is seeking the “immediate return of the stolen” car or $50,000 in damages, matching the value of the Audi, the statement said.

21 West Avenue Apartments, its management company and Ben & Nino did not immediately respond to requests for comment.