On October 15 at around 8 30 pm my wife just got in from work and shopping. We had dinner then she asked me to go down and get a bag she had left in her car. When I got down I saw a tow truck hauling her car off at the apartment complex we have lived at for almost a year. I was able to stop the driver and ask him what he was doing. He said the property manager said we did not have our parking permit in the car.I told him we did have it and he brought the car back around and he watched as I opened the door only to find that it had fallen off of the rear view mirror onto the floor. He then said now your wife must show me papers proving this is her car and we can have our car back. She showed him all the papers and he said it will cost $220 for him to un-hook the car. We called security and they came out with a big grin and said the property manager is the one we need to contact. The property managers name and phone number were not on our lease and was not posted anywhere at the apartment complex. We asked the security for it and they said that information is private and they could not give it out but that she lives close by all the while this security man still had a big grin on his face. By this time the tow truck driver said he will have to add on another $90 for holding him up. I had no choice then and offered to use my debit card to pay and he said it has to be only in my wife s name. I then asked the driver to wait while I went to get some cash out of the ATM but he said if we hold him up again he will have to up the fee another $50. I gave up and he carried the car to impound it. In the end it cost us almost $500 to get this car back. The next day when the apartment office opened my wife and I went down to speak to someone about it. Just out of luck the girl who called our car in was in there. We explained to her what had happened and she said how sorry she was. She also stated that the tow truck drivers that patrol the parking lots at this apartment complex were told if anyone can show them proof in the car that they have a valid parking permit they are not to impound the car. But we showed proof in front of the tow truck driver and he said under Washington state law he could not un-hook the car for no reason. This guy just kept making up rules as he went along. Was all of this legal? I felt like this was some sort of scam.