Letter to the Editor - Visitors to Homestead. Watch Out! They Tow!!!

To the Editor:

It makes me very sad to have to write this email because I love visiting Main Street in Homestead. I love going to the Seminole Theater. You have some wonderful restaurant, great Mexican restaurants, and also one of my favorites, the Capri. I live in West Kendall now, but in my previous life I grew up in a small town in Kentucky. Going to Homestead brings back a lot of warm feelings. The small town vibe.

A feeling of relaxation and a break from the hecticness of Miami. Until the night of February 23rd.

That was the night my wife and I, and three other friends went to see the Mersey Beatles at the Seminole theater. (Fantastic show and the theater is amazing.) I saw a parking lot across from the theater and parked there as did my friends. There were signs in certain places that said you might be towed if you parked there. But, the signs were not everywhere, and from the way I entered the parking lot the sign was not visible in that direction. It was a little confusing. The lot was full and even with the unclear signs, I thought, this is Homestead, they are not going to tow you on a theater night, across from the theater. Visitors have come to town and are spending money, so surely the Homestead warmth and friendliness would trump greed. Nope…….

That full lot had only five cars when I walked out of the theater later that night.

The businesses were closed at that late hour. As I started walking across the street, I saw it. A tow truck, driving fast, tearing into the parking lot. The driver moved quickly to hook up a car, pull it backwards out of the parking spot. Then the driver, moving fast, running, looking like a scurrying rat, connected the tow truck to the front of the car and quickly, very quickly, tore out of the parking lot with the car attached….just as a young couple was walking across the street after enjoying the show. I waited to watch to see if there might be a confrontation but the unscrupulous driver was so quick and so practiced that he was gone in a flash. I mean…it was fast!!! That guy had a lot of practice!

It was not pleasant watching this couple discover their car was gone. I asked them if it was the black Camry. They said, yes. I told them what happened. Their evening was ruined as was no telling how many others.. Now, they had to pay a couple of hundred dollars to get their car back. Welcome to Homestead.

I suppose the story would end there, but my understanding is this has been an ongoing problem in Homestead and apparently not much can be done to stop this.

My advice to the Seminole Theater was put a sign out front that says, “they will tow you” to try and help a little. Perhaps on your Welcome to Homestead sign you should put a warning that Homestead is serious about towing.

The reason I am writing this is as I stated, I love Homestead and it is painful to watch you chase people away. You cannot print what that young couple said about Homestead after they realized their car was taken. They will never come back.

I’m sure all of their friends know their Homestead story. If my car had been towed, I wouldn’t come back either.

The bigger issue, and this is for the newspaper or police to investigate, is this has been going on for years, and there is a belief that property owners and tow truck drivers have a “thing” going on, meaning splitting the money. I’ll leave that to your community to figure out.

In the meantime, I encourage Homestead elected officials to create an awareness campaign because Homestead has made a remarkable comeback. You don’t want to lose it!