Now it’s up to the City of Worcester to step up to the plate and do the right thing! (Just pretend you’re a business, City Manager Mike O’Brien, and the citizens of Worcester are your customers!)
Here are a few blasts from the “Pat’s”! – R. Tirella
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From a few years ago …
Give Pat’s the heave ho!
By Rosalie Tirella
Word’s gotten out that Mayor Joe O’Brien is hoping to convince city officials to give the assholes at Pat’s Towing the heave ho when it comes to renewing the city’s towing/impounding contract with Pat’s Towing company of Shrewsbury Street, Worcester. (their contract is winding down) For year’s Pat’s Towing has had a lock on the City of Worcester’s towing – earning hundreds of thousands of dollars, probably millions of dollars, while giving Worcesterties the finger – up the ass, twice.
Mayor O’Brien, like all the other city councilors, wants to give another towing company – one run by HUMAN BEINGS – a chance at the lucrative deal. A chance to pick up Wormtown’s illegally parked cars during snowstorms, etc, summer concerts, etc, or on city streets where there is no/limited parking (or other parking violations).
Anyone who has lived in Worcester for longer than, oh, five minutes, quickly learns what bastards the cretins at Pat’s can be. They have turned a city job into a bold, get-outa-my-way-or-I’ll mow-you-down-AND-I’ll-charge-you-hundreds of dollars to get your car back into a weird kind of civic blood-letting. They have had Worcester in a nasty head-lock for years – for way too long.
Two examples:
Last winter, my old dog, my Nova Scotia Retriever, Bailey, was dying of cancer. Nasal cancer so that despite being on chemo and anti-pain and anti-inflamatory pills (we had the tumor biopsied – it was malignant), my Bailey Boy had a bump on his once elegant long nose (the ever growing tumor) and snot and blood dripping from his left nostril, due to the tumor – which I lovingly wiped away with Kleenix. I loved my Bailey so much and he loved life so much (still running after squirrels – caught a skunk!; barking at skateboarders with abandon) that we hung on to Baily as long as we could – as long as HE wanted to hang on to us. Well, one day I had some business in the Denholm Building. I parked in the adjacent lot for five minutes – with my Baily in the back seat. I come out and POOF! The car was gone!
“Pat’s! Fuckin’ Pat’s” I screamed in the middled of the lot. (I just knew) “They took my dog! They towed my dog who is dying of cancer!!! (They would have towed a car with an infant in it!)
Crazed with tears and fears, I called my guy – and told him everything through choked sobs. He was on a job in the Fitchburg area. It took him about an hour to come down to Denholms.
“Bailey!” I screamed to him when he drove up to Denholms. “My Bailey Boy! He’s going to die! He’s going to die!”
It was as cold out that day as it is today – bitter cold.
I jumped into the truck and we drove to Pat’s. Up Shrewsbury Street we sped – and there in the Pat’s lot was my car with poor old Bailey inside, the snot dripping down his nose. He was sitting up straight and tall in the back seat – waiting for his mommy like a brave little man. Serious looking – as if in the “stay” position. He looked “pale,” if that makes sense. My old dog looked cold.
“A hundred dollars,” the attendant/fiend at Pat’s said. ($100 for 2 hours)
“The dog has cancer. He’s 12 years old. You had to tow?” I cried at him, giving him the $100 bill.
He told me my dog was OK. He didn’t remove my dog and keep him in the warm service center. Nope. Bailey was with the vehicles. But he was OK. This “vet” knew.
Shortly after the Pat’s Towing ordeal my Bailey died. He was dying before Pat’s got their hooks into my car, but the bumpy ride, the two-hour wait in 20-degree weather did my dear old Bailey no good.
Story #2
A friend of mine told me an old man – in his 80s – had his car towed by Pat’s Towing. He went over to Pat’s Shrewbury Street holding-pen and asked for his car back. He didn’t have the bucks needed to get his jalopy out. Well, the lovely “boys” at Pat’s taunted him. They teased and teased the old man, and the old man rushed at them, rushed at their fence, a feisty guy, trying to beat the crap out of these young thugs. And guess what? The octogenarian almost gave himself a heart attack trying to mix it up with Pat’s Towing “boys.” He finally called my friend who went down to Pat’s Towing and paid the money. Blood money. The old man got his car out but he had lost his dignity.
And this is the towing company that the City of Worcester wants to rehire? This is the towing company city leaders want to represent Worcester? The people of Pat’s are pond scum – speeding down resdential streets at 50 miles an hour, blasting through urban centers as they race, absolutely RACE to make their next killing, their next Tow Job, while the city of Worcester gives it a Blow Job!
Mayor O’Brien is right! We’ve had enought of the sadism! We want a towing company -not a gang of thugs!
So let’s get rid of these demons – a huge tow truck going 50 miles an hour down neighbrohood streets to pick up a car with a dying dog in it is not what we need. Lots of other blue-collar guys in other blue collar businesses know and HATE Pat’s Towing. They won’t do business with these wolverines because they are so rotten. These blue collar guys and their businesses use other towing companies – a lot of them like Boulevard Towing.
Nice guys, is what they say when they talk about Boulevard Towing.
So why not, City manager Mike O’Brien? Why not follow the lead of Mayor Joe O’Brien and ditch Pat’s Towing – NOT RENEW THEIR CONTRACT? Try Boulevard Towing. Hell, try anybody BUT Pat’s.
The citizens of Worcester – and guests to our community – deserve to be treated with a bit more respect. That is tow, if necessary, but use your heart, have some common sense and SLOW DOWN and stop ripping folks/the city off!
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Another Pat’s Towing Service Horror Story
By Terry Bradley
First: I love InCity Times. The price is right and it is 100% better than the local newspaper that some people pay outrageously for. It’s not sugar coated and you tell it like it is. You cover local news that is pertinent to our city and its residents. You are not afraid or intimidated.
I really enjoyed your piece on Pat’s Towing. And I am very dismayed that they got the towing contract from the city again. You are 110% correct when you say, “get-outa-my-way-or-I’ll-mow-you-down”; “cretins”; “blood money”; “pond scum”; and “demons”.They have no hearts and they do speed through the narrow city streets with their enormous beast trucks. I work downtown and see them daily circling like vultures looking for victims. I’ve come close to being hit by a truck barreling down the street.
My story is about the night I went to see “A Christmas Carol” on the 18th of December at the Hanover. (When we arrived we actually saw Pat’s tow trucks circling the block looking for victims.) After having an enjoyable evening, I came out to find my car gone. Like you, right away I screamed “PAT’S”.
The irony is, I was legally parked in the parking lot for which I pay monthly, with the tag hanging from the rearview mirror. I walked back to the Hanover to speak with the security person on duty. He directed me to the police officers outside directing traffic and crossing pedestrians. They were not surprised at my story and told me what the police think of Pat’s Towing and they told me there was nothing they could do because the city continues to give Pat’s the contract. When I got to Pat’s the dispatcher was very rude. He said there was nothing he could do. He had to contact the driver who made the tow. Why, I can’t understand. He contacted him by two-way radio. Then I had to wait twenty to thirty minutes for the driver to get back to the station. That I don’t understand at all.
So I explained to him how I had a legal tag attached to my mirror and my vehicle should never have been towed. Then he played twenty questions: What does the tag look like? Where did I get the tag? Was I a resident of the Mayo buildings? How long have I been parking in that lot? Who do I pay my fee to? How do I make my monthly payments?He finally unlocked the gate and went to my car, as I followed him. The first thing I did was to take a picture of my tag, hanging on my rearview mirror, sitting in Pat’s lot. He told me he was a night driver and did not recognize that particular tag.
Long story short, after about an hour of inconvenience I was able to drive my vehicle out of there and my friend was late for work. As I was leaving, another couple were walking in, in tears. I told them “Good Luck”, as they were dealing with idiots. And nobody ever apologized for the inconvenience or error on their part.
My problem is, what does this say about our city? That company is representing our city. Is this the way we want it to represent our city to out of town visitors? And with the Hanover, there are many out of town people coming in. Do we want them to have the impression our city has a bunch of idiots? A scenario – a couple comes a long distance to an event. They spend money for the event, maybe a dinner and drinks at a local restaurant, maybe an overnight stay at a local hotel if they’ve traveled far enough.
They come out later, in the dark at night, to find no vehicle in an unfamiliar city. After finding out where the vehicle is, they have to call a cab to get to Shrewsbury St. When they get to Shrewsbury St. they find out they have to find an ATM because Pat’s does not accept checks or credit cards. Strictly CASH! I wonder how much cash has been put into their pockets and illegally not reported as income in the past several years. I was told their fee is $175., although I did not end up paying a fee, so I don’t know for sure. Add to that the hour or more they have been inconvenienced.
Who would want to come back to a city like this? If Mayor [O’Brien and the Worcester City Council] had any sense at all they would pay a person, or two, for the night to let people park there and collect a fee to park That makes a lot more sense to me.I’d also just like to extend my condolences on the loss of Bailey. That entire experience must have been heartwrenching. There was no reason to leave that dog outside in the vehicle.