Alleged towing victims speak out after new charges emerge against owners of Metro Towing
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (KCTV) - As the owner and mother of a local towing company are facing a slew of felony charges in Jackson and Platte counties, multiple people have come forward to share their negative experiences with the company.
“My neighbors came and knocked on my door, I would say a little past 11, 11:30,” said Tyrone Harrison. “She said ‘they’re taking your car, they’re taking your car.’ I came downstairs because I live right there, and sure enough, my car was gone.”
Just a few weeks ago, Harrison says he was woken up to hear his car was being towed out of his apartment complex’s parking lot. He says the towing came despite him having a parking permit on his windshield. When he called Metro Towing and Transport, he was told it would cost $350 to get his car back.
“I stayed up all night and got up early in the morning to take care of business,” said Harrison. “Somehow got the money to be able to get the car out.”
Harrison says he went to his apartment complex’s office and was told they sent emails out stating residents needed to pick up new parking permits, but he says he never got that email. He says he had to miss work that Friday to get things in order ahead of picking up his car. Harrison says he wasn’t able to sleep that weekend, afraid his car would be towed again.
“Any noise I heard I was jumping because my car had been taken,” said Harrison.
When a co-worker told him Wednesday about the charges the towing company owner and his mother now face, he was shocked.
“I was upset,” said Harrison. “Highly, highly upset. When it happened, I was flabbergasted. I’d like to get my money back. I didn’t sleep or nothing that whole weekend knowing that my car got took for no apparent reason. I have the legal sticker, cars insured, tags all up to date so why did you take my car?”
Harrison says he plans on reaching out to the Jackson County Prosecutor’s Office and the Kansas City Police Department to file a report.
Grant Lander says Metro Towing and Transport towed his car from a public parking garage at Union Hill on New Year’s morning in 2024. He says he and his friends were out for New Year’s Eve and he was the designated driver.
“I brought my friend back to his apartment complex and parked in their free public parking, which is supposed to be for the bars nearby and the apartment complex,” said Lander. “You’re not allowed to park there overnight.”
READ MORE: Additional charges filed against Kansas City tow company owners
He says he was at his friend’s apartment for about an hour.
“Around 1:30, 2 a.m., I come downstairs, and my car is gone,” said Lander. “I called the towing company and asked them why they towed my car. I was only there for an hour and was at the bars nearby and at the apartment complex directly above the garages. They were very hostile and wouldn’t give me my car back. They told me to come in a couple of days, schedule an appointment, and get it then.”
Lander says the company initially gave him the wrong address, so he had to call them back for the correct location they had his car.
“I saw a young African American kid who had brought the police with him to go get his car,” said Lander. “He had a very similar experience to mine. He was parked in his own apartment complex, and they had towed his car without asking. At the end of the day, I’m thankful the police were there. I heard his story and I knew I was dealing with a not so great company.”
Lander says he requested a towing log from Metro Towing and Transport, which is required in Kansas City.
“According to city ordinances they are supposed to keep a log of how far your car has gone and this whole list of things that I can protect myself with if I find I got towed, for example, for 35 miles unnecessarily which could hurt my vehicle,” said Lander. “They don’t keep it at all and when I asked for it, they got extremely aggressive. They started yelling at me and I had to, with the police officer, show them the ordinances.”
He says the company didn’t give him the towing log, but gave him a 4669 document, which is a form towing companies are required to fill out when they take a car off private property. He says he took a look at the other man’s 4669 form as well.
“That’s when I saw that the signatures were the exact same and I knew they were supposed to have some re-g in person,” said Lander.
Lander ended up taking Metro Towing and Transport to Small Claims Court and ended up losing his case.
“He (Donald Adamson) alleged during that case that L.S. Adamson was an independent contractor,” said Lander. “I had no idea that was his mother. She signed off on both, both signatures were the exact same, despite the fact that we were towed from different places across town.”
Lander says he saw the news Wednesday morning that Donald and Lannette Adamson had been charged with multiple felony charges, including forgery, harassment, and tampering with a motor vehicle.
“I saw most of their forms side by side were the exact same and the independent contractor was his mother and not an independent representative of a business that he had told the court it was,” said Lander. “I felt very vindicated because I knew from my personal experience this company was just taking cars off the street whenever they wanted and then lying to protect themselves for it.”
He says he’s glad to see prosecutors moving forward with charges in similar cases and that he has reached out to the Jackson County Prosecutor’s Office with his story.
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