Overnight Fire, Gunfire May Be Escalating Tow Truck War

The Philadelphia fire marshal and police are investigating suspicious overnight fires and gunfire in what may be an escalation of a war between two tow truck operators.

KYW Newsradio Team Coverage

KYW's Al Novack reports that about a dozen cars were destroyed by a fire about 1:15am that officials term "suspicious" at the lot of tow truck operator J & Sons, near 2nd Street and Erie Avenue in Hunting Park (above).

Then, a short time later, someone fired a number of bullets at a building housing the Mystical Towing Company.  No one was hit.

Those are the same two towing companies that were involved in an altercation on Monday that turned violent.  Police were looking for Jose LaTorre Jr. (right) of J & Sons, whom they believe shot Angel Carrera, a Mystical tow truck driver, in the thigh (see previous story).

Meanwhile, KYW's Mike Dunn reports that Philadelphia police say they're going to push for changes in a two-year-old rotational towing system that was designed to prevent wreck-chasing and to prevent disputes among tow truck companies.

Under the current rotational towing system, begun in 2008, a police officer on the scene of the accident asks for a tow truck and a dispatcher calls a company at the top of the department's list.

But Mike Resnick, chief of staff to deputy mayor for public safety Everett Gillison, says the tow truck companies now try to get around that by beating the police officer to the scene:
"It was a noble goal to stop wreck chasing, but once we operationalized it, we realized that it actually had just the reverse effect."

So, Resnick says, the police department will ask City Council to revise the rotational towing system, so that a tow truck company is dispatched even sooner -- as soon as the call for the officer goes out.

Resnick admits the wreck chasers may find some way to get around that, but he vows to keep working to rein them in (see related story).

(Photo from CBS3)