LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- Cassandra Gray was in the middle of dinner with her cousin at Cattleman's Roadhouse in Shelbyville on Saturday night when things took an unexpected turn.
"No warning, nobody saying anything," said Gray.
"My cousin's car was still here on top of the tow truck," she said. "They charged him $350 to get his car down."
It happened in the adjacent Great Escape Shelbyville 8 movie theater parking lot. The theater is temporarily closed while undergoing some major changes according to the theater's Operations Director, Ron Rooding.
Gray said nearly a dozen other vehicles were getting towed, including an RV with Virginia plates, which she says would have set the vehicle owners back $500.
Doug Smith, owner of Smith's Towing, said he was blindsided by the reaction to towing so many vehicles.
"I will never be back on the property again after this deal went south," Smith said.
Smith says he received his orders from the theater's new owners.
"They just picked up the phone and called me and have me come down there and pick them up," said Smith. "Showed me which ones he wanted attached and everything else," he said.
Rooding says otherwise.
When WDRB’s Breon Martin told him, "Doug said you wanted the cars gone and that this was bad practice on your end," he responded by calling it "bull**it," and that the "goal or mission isn't to isolate people and piss them off."
Rooding says his team has a duty to protect the property and make sure the environment is safe.
Rooding said he called the tow company because of recent vandalism, asphalt damages due to larger vehicles and even abandoned cars left on the empty lot.
Other towing companies say they were also contacted by the theater.
"We all refused because we knew the bad publicity it would come with," John Hittle, owner of Hittle's Wrecker Service and Simpsonville Towing & Recovery, said.
Gray hopes to see change after the situation.
"Put proper signage up saying you can no longer park over there," she suggests.
As far as a barricade around the entrances and exits, Rooding said, "In retrospect, that probably would have been a good idea months ago and with a couple weeks left to open we have a lot of vendors and we're doing a lot of repairs to the building."
While Smith’s Towing is working to refund those people who were charged a fee and almost towed Saturday night, Gray says she is making it her mission to see this never happen again.
"We’ve talked to several community leaders who say we don’t have an ordinance for something like this for price gouging," said Gray. "Hopefully, our community officials will come up with something."
Jordan Nichols, general manager of Cattleman's, called the incident on Saturday a disaster.
"I hope that our guests understand that Cattleman's was not made aware of the potential of having your vehicle towed by the theater if you were to park there," Nichols said. "There has always been a positive relationship between Cattleman's and the theater and we have never had issue with our guests parking there."
Nichols encourages patrons to avoid parking in the theater's lot.
Copyright 2021 WDRB Media. All Rights Reserved.
