Cortez Towing ripoff Unfair Towing Scam pricing Riverside California

The parking lot has two areas, one are requires parking permits and another area has public parking meters. My car was on the public parking meter area, and when I arrived to pickup my car (I arrived 15 minutes late), my cars was already gone.

The sign that was next to the parking meter reads like this PLEASE WE AWARE THAT RUNNING OVER YOUR TIME WILL GET YOU A TICKET AND POSSIBLY YOUR VEHICLE WILL BE TOWED. WE TRY TO AVOID THIS, BUT SUBSTANTIAL TIME AFTER YOUR TIME RUNS OUT AND OR REPEATED WARNING TICKETS WILL GET YOUR VEHICLE TOWED

I called the company to know at what time my car was picked up from the parking lot, and they said that it was at 11:50 am. The parking meter expired at 11:45 am.! I DON'T THING THAT 5 MINUTES AFTER MY METER EXPIRED IS SUBSTANTIAL AMOUNT OF TIME

When I arrived at the parking lot, I noticed that there were a group of 3 people monitoring the parking lot. I asked about the parking permit, and asked them if they could show me one. The guys pointed at one vehicle, I took the picture and then I noticed that at least 4 cars didn't have the permit. In fact only two vehicles had the permit, and one of them had a expired one.

I ALSO WANT TO MENTION THAT THE PARKING LOT WAS USING A SIGN THAT READS CITY OF RIVERSIDE STREET DEPARTMENT.
I checked the signs on the parking lot and found out that all of them were faded, a lot of missing information, everything extremely confusing.
Asking to the Cortez Towing company about what happened that day, the told me that at least 7 cars were towed.
I was charge $267 in CASH. Let's see $267 * 7 = $1,869 in one day from that parking lot!

Gerardo
Aliso Viejo, California
U.S.A.