Shawn Mariani

What a great idea it was to make the trip down to Washington, D.C. for the swearing in of our 44th President, Barack Obama. Could two people work Monday night in Cleveland, Ohio, leave at 6pm, drive to a 1 star hotel in Maryland, sleep for 4 hours, wake up at 4am Inauguration Day (Tuesday), drive the remaining 2 hours into DC and hop on the DC Metro Red Line from Shady Grove Station without issue? Could we do all this amidst the other 2 million people who were doing and thinking the same thing? We did, and what follows is not the fun and historical experience we were a part of before, during, and after the ceremony, but what happened when a small towing outfit (Henry’s Wrecker Service) out of Gaithersburg, MD decided to go out of their way to ruin someones day and take their $130 for absolutely NO REASON whatsoever.

We arrived at the Shady Grove Station in Derwood at 6am hoping to find one of its 60,000 parking spots open. As we pulled in, cars were filling in the last few rows, and judging by the lengthy line of cars in front of us it was evident that we were out of luck. So here we are at the farthest subway station from the city, and the parking is full at 6am. We couldn’t fight the traffic deeper into the DC area to another station, so we decided to park somewhere and walk to Shady Grove. We looked for a parking spot where we wouldn’t bother anyone or any business, far enough away where we wouldn’t be noticed or even at risk of being towed. We chose the Giant Food grocery store about 1.3 miles from the station. We parked in the farthest spot from the store (See pic) and began our walk through the snow to the station. We saw a city worker and he informed us of a shortcut to the station through the woods. To sum this up, this walk/hike wasn’t easy and we went out of our way to blend in and go unnoticed. We wanted to get to the Inauguration.

We make it to the station, get on the second train, ride it 30mins into the city, get out and walk with 2 million other people to The National Mall, stand in the 13 degree frigid temperature and watch our 44th President take the oath of office.

The biggest bottleneck of people trying to get somewhere occurred at about 1:30pm when everyone on The Mall was trying to exit to the west to make their way around the locked-down White House area and back to Metro Center. We did this in about 1.5 hours, and found ourselves on the Red Line back to the end of the line, Shady Grove. We get back, and decided that our coldness and soreness from standing outside all day merited us a cab ride back to the Giant store to find our car. The $10 cab ride dropped us off and drove away before we realized our car was gone. Towed. The parking lot had hundreds of empty spots, the store wasn’t loosing business due to the Inauguration. Us parking there affected absolutely no one and nothing. Another tow-truck driver named Jimmy from another towing service (ironic?) was kind enough to help us with a ride (cost: $20 cash) 3 miles up the road to the lot where our car was located. Upon our arrival there we found two woman locked behind a chicken-wired window decorated with Beware of Dog signs. What a shitty end to such an awesome historical day? They took our $130 and returned our keys, and we were off.

When asked how the tow truck driver knew that we weren’t shopping inside the store, the window woman said, “Well he was actually in the lot and saw you two get out, and actually took a picture of y’all walking away.”  She showed me the picture.

What kind of crap is this?  The argument is Henry’s is contracted to do these things, but come on – the dude was there and could have said, “Hey guys, if you park there I have to tow you”, but rather saw us and then immediately snapped our picture before towing our car.  Tow people in handicap spots, tow people in fire lanes.  Tow people parked for 10 hours at a mom & pop store with 5 parking spots that’s loosing business.  Why tow a car from Ohio who purposely went out of their way to not impede any business or violate any law.  And for the record, there was no “You will be towed sign” near the entrance of the lot.

I just think this is crap, and a really immoral way for some guy to make $130.  It’s Inauguration Day.  The area is flooded with millions of people celebrating history, freedom, diversity, peace and a smooth transition of power, and still. someone has to make a buck off of it.

To the people of Henry’s Wrecker Service, the cities of Gaithersburg and Derwood, Maryland, and the landlord of the Giant Food store – I kindly ask for our money back.  Be good people.  Be good Americans.

• My pictures from Inauguration Day
• Our Walk to Shady Grove
• Henry’s Wrecker Service of Virginia & Maryland – Website