I attended a Phillies/Mets game at Citizens Bank Park on August 26, 2008. After the game my vehicle was gone from its parking space in the lot along Darien Street. The lot was signed for event parking and I paid $10.00 to park. A large Neanderthal type selling pretzels pretended he witness nothing but then I noticed the George Smith Towing sign that his larger than life frame was hiding. My guess is that he or someone else hanging out picks out the victims and is somehow rewarded. For those of you who are not wise to the world of vehicular storage in the City of Philadelphia; George Smith Towing has been around for over 30 years that I know of and the only thing that has changed is the price of their extortion. For this to continue for so many years only leads me to believe that the big story is not about towing, its about extortion, payoffs and protection money and obviously many people in city government must be involved. What better way to extort money out of businesses, citizens and tourist. They don?t come around for a check they just extort money from patrons. Philadelphia PD, sets a poor example and raises some questions about ethics by turning a blind eye to blatant extortion. George Smith Towing must be very busy with the elections around the corner. I think a tow rate increase is in order to cover all the political contributions. \r
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