Supporters of former President Donald Trump thought there was “something fishy” about the way dozens of rallygoers had their cars towed in North Carolina.

Dozens of drivers who went to the Trump rally in Charlotte on Wednesday were left stranded when they returned to the parking lot and found their vehicles were gone.

The rally attendees insisted the manager at the Dunkin’ where they left their cars had said it would be okay to park there.

“I talked to dozens of people who were stranded here. They told me basically the same thing,” reported WBTV’s Ron Lee. “They parked here in this parking lot, went to the rally, enjoyed themselves, came back, and the cars were simply gone. A lot of these people came from hours away and now they’ve got no way to get home.”

(Video Credit WBTV 3)

“The managers inside promised that they could park here,” Zander DeSoto told WBTV. “Some of the people here even gave money to the people inside.”

“Gotcha Towing, the group responsible for pulling the cars out of the lot, said there was a sign warning that illegally parked cars would be removed. The company added that the manager of the store contacted them, asking them to pull the vehicles off its property and that the only way people could get their cars was to pay the $380 towing fee,” WBTV reported.

“Something very fishy’s going on here because I’ve never seen anything like this happen before,” Steven Parker told WBTV.

One couple explained they had traveled over two hours to attend the rally and returned to the parking lot to find their vehicle simply gone.

One rally attendee told the outlet that the Dunkin’ employees locked the doors and refused to come out when he went to confront the manager.

“The whole parking lot is gone … everybody,” he said. “They locked the doors. They won’t answer our calls, and they won’t even answer at the window.”

WBTV reportedly did some “digging” into the towing company and found that it is operating despite the North Carolina Department of Revenue (NCDOR) allegedly having suspended its business license.

WBTV reported:

After digging into Gotcha Towing, we came across documents from the NCDOR stating that the company’s business license was been suspended for failing to pay its taxes.

The notification reads:

“Any act performed or attempted to be performed while the entity is suspended is invalid and has no effect until the entity is reinstated by the Department of Revenue.”

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Kwabena Ekuban, who was at a local restaurant across the street from the Dunkin’ parking lot, told the station, “They don’t care. They will tow your car.”

“They will tow it with no remorse,” he said, adding that he has seen similar incidents.

“I go to this bar all the time. I get to see people on Tuesdays get their cars towed all the time,” Ekuban said.

The morning after the rally, the on-duty manager at the store offered a blunt response to inquiries from the news station.

“I told several people they cannot park here. We have a towing-enforced sign. That’s my statement,” the manager said.

“We got called in to remove those vehicles, that weren’t permitted to park there, that wasn’t free public parking,” an employee of the towing company told WBTV, reportedly hanging up the call abruptly.

Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police were called by the stranded drivers after the rally but all they could do was drive the rallygoers to retrieve their vehicles at the towing yard. Police explained the issue was a civil matter and out of their control.

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Frieda Powers

Senior Staff Writer
Frieda@bizpacreview.com

Originally from New York, Powers graduated from New York University and eventually made her way to sunny South Florida where she has been writing for the BizPacReview team since 2015.

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