Concertgoers in Sacramento walked out of a weekend music festival to find their cars simply gone, then got hit with a $562 bill just to get them back.
Quick Take
- Multiple drivers parked near Aftershock festival in Sacramento say their cars disappeared from the lot after the show.
- A sign with a phone number led them to a company called J&B Towing and a $562 charge to reclaim their vehicles.
- One driver, Ryan Capagli, says his car came back so damaged it could not be driven.
- Public records raise questions about whether J&B Towing was properly licensed to operate in California.
- Aftershock organizers say they never managed the surrounding lots and warned that parking was at each driver’s own risk.
Cars Gone, Then A Price Tag To Get Them Back
Ryan Capagli parked near the Aftershock festival in Sacramento like thousands of other fans. When he came back, his car was gone. CBS News Sacramento reported that he and other drivers found a temporary sign with a phone number where their vehicles used to sit. Calling that number sent them to a Del Paso Boulevard address and a $562 fee to get their cars released.
Capagli eventually got his car back. It was damaged so badly he says he could not even drive it home. His insurance company is now treating the case as a stolen vehicle claim instead of a routine tow, according to CBS News Sacramento. That is not a paperwork mix-up. That is a company’s insurer deciding the damage looks more like a crime than a tow job.
The Paperwork Did Not Add Up
Capagli told reporters the invoice he received was missing basic details every legitimate tow ticket should include. There was no vehicle identification number, no tow time, and no release time listed. He also said the affidavit authorizing the tow looked forged to him. A police report has since been filed with the Sacramento Police Department, giving investigators an official starting point.
Missing paperwork on a single tow could be sloppiness. Missing paperwork across multiple drivers, paired with a cookie-cutter price tag of exactly $562 each time, starts to look like a pattern. That is the kind of detail that should get a licensing board’s attention fast, not months from now after the damage claims pile up.
Licensing Questions Nobody Has Answered
J&B Towing’s owner told CBS News Sacramento the company was legitimate but did not hand over a license number when asked. Public records checks found the company listed as active in the federal Department of Transportation registration system, but it did not turn up under the same name in other license and business searches required for towing operations in California. An active federal listing is not the same thing as a valid state towing license, and drivers deserve to know which one this company actually had.
California law does not leave towing companies free to charge whatever they want. State vehicle code caps private property towing and storage rates at the levels approved for the law enforcement agency with jurisdiction over that property, or the company’s approved rate with the California Highway Patrol. Local authorities across the state echo the same rule: a tow must be authorized by the property owner or their agent, and charging excessive fees is against the law. If the $562 figure cannot be tied to an approved rate schedule, that number alone is worth a hard look.
Aftershock Says It Is Not Their Lot
Festival organizers have an answer ready, and it is worth taking seriously. Aftershock’s official guidance states plainly that the festival does not manage any of the surrounding parking lots, that parking is entirely at the driver’s own risk, and that overnight parking is prohibited, with vehicles left overnight subject to towing. That puts real distance between the festival stage and the lot where cars vanished.
That disclaimer matters, but it does not settle the bigger question. A festival can rightly say it does not run the parking lot next door. It cannot answer whether the company doing the towing followed the law, had the right license, or charged a lawful fee. Those questions sit with J&B Towing, the lot’s actual owner, and now with Sacramento police.
What Happens Next
A filed police report means Sacramento investigators can pull tow authorization records, licensing files, and payment receipts to see whether this was a lawful tow gone wrong or something far worse. Until that happens, drivers who paid $562 to get a damaged car back are left holding an invoice with blank spaces where the answers should be. For a weekend built around live music, that is a steep and ugly encore nobody signed up for.
Sources:
nypost.com, cityofsacramento.gov, law.lis.virginia.gov
