‘I Got Home Around 7pm:' Woman Gets Her Truck Towed. Then She Claims the Tow Truck Company Stole Her Car Outright

The towing company disputes her story.

Photo by: kendallmathisruns & Hill Country

By: Chad Swiatecki

Aug 7, 2025 at 5:00pm ET

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“They literally stole my truck.”

That’s how an outraged woman describes her ordeal with a Florida towing company after her pickup vanished from her apartment’s parking lot.

She says they told her it was towed for having an expired registration. But she alleges that her registration isn’t expired.

According to her, there was no notice—just a $407 cash demand and a wall of silence.

Volusia County Towing acknowledges towing her vehicle but categorically disputes her claims that there was any wrongdoing on its part.

"She is making quite a few false accusations and has made a video go viral from being towed for failure to display a valid registration," Volusia County Towing general manager Aaron Forsman told Motor1 via email. He provided screenshots that the company says confirm its side of the story.

The viral TikTok clip from college student Kendall (@kendallmathisruns) finds her sharing the details of her truck’s disappearance and her still-unsuccessful attempts to get restitution from either the towing company or her apartment complex.

As of this writing, her TikTok has over 230,000 views.

The Disappearing Truck

Kendall says she returned home around 7 p.m. on a recent night after grocery shopping and didn’t move her truck until the next morning, which was when she discovered it was gone. Panic set in until she learned it had supposedly been towed for expired registration, she says. But she insists her Texas registration was current and displayed adequately on her windshield, per Texas law, which differs from Florida’s requirement of a sticker on the license plate.

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She reached out to her apartment complex and says she was given the same reason: “Expired registration.” But Kendall says she stood firm because her tags are current. Eventually, she shares that she made her way to the tow yard with $300 in cash, only to be told her vehicle would cost $407 to release.

This raises a question: Can Florida tow your Texas‑registered vehicle for violating Florida sticker/display laws?

Florida law allows nonresidents to operate with valid out‑of‑state tags, provided they're properly displayed and current. Laws requiring a valid in-state registration within 10 days apply only if you’ve established Florida residency. Unless Kendall was deemed a Florida resident, her valid Texas registration should suffice if it's valid, which the towing company denies.

Florida’s Towing Law

Under Florida Statute §715.07, property owners may authorize towing of unauthorized vehicles from private property under very strict guidelines:

Proper signage must be posted, with “Tow‑Away Zone” sign visible 24 hours before tow;
The tow company and property owner have to comply with notification and fee filing rules;
Providers have to file standard fee schedules with local law enforcement, and post them at the storage site; and
Vehicle owners have the right to retrieve property, see documentation, and receive an itemized receipt upon request.

Additionally, under §713.78, tow operators must perform a “good faith” verification of registration state and ownership (VIN checks, tag inspections) before claiming a lien, and must send a Notice of Lien with itemized charges within 5 business days for out-of-state vehicles.

Kendall says she plans to take the towing company to small claims court. Meanwhile, her story serves as a warning to other transient drivers.

Here are some helpful tips to hopefully avoid finding yourself in the same predicament:

Know your registration requirements in the state you're visiting or living in;
Understand private-property towing rules, and look for proper signage and 48-hour notices;
Ask for documentation before payment, including a receipt, itemized fee schedule, and authorization details; and
Demand transparency, and if they won’t tell you who is in charge, walk away.

No Notice, No Receipt, No Help

Kendall says she never received a 48‑hour warning sticker on her windshield, which is often required before private-property towings are enforced. When she pressed for proof or evidence of notice, she claims the apartment office could provide nothing.

Once she tried to engage with the towing company, she alleges they didn’t answer calls, put her on a lengthy hold, demanded cash payment, and refused to give her an itemized receipt. She also says they are requiring her father, to whom the truck is registered, to provide a notarized document allowing her to pick it up.

In an update, Kendall says she’s still trying to get relief.

“They falsified the records of my truck tow, incorrectly charged me for my vehicle size, blocked me,” she writes, adding, “The apartment complex is no help, I’ve filed a case with the state Attorney General, looking into small claims court, and the police are of no help!”

The Towing Company Responds

In a detailed written response to Motor1, Forsman, the general manager of Volusia County Towing, says it’s contracted to patrol her apartment complex. It disputes many of Kendall’s claims and defends the legality of the tow.

According to the company, the vehicle was tagged with a 48-hour warning sticker at 1:38 a.m. on Tuesday, July 29, due to an expired registration. The truck was then towed at 3:26 a.m. on Friday, August 1, more than 73 hours later. The company provided time-stamped photos showing the warning notice being created and applied to the truck, along with documentation that her Texas registration sticker showed an expiration of June 2025.

Though Kendall claims she received no notice, the company insists proper procedure was followed and that "photos were taken and kept on file as proof for situations such as this one."

Kendall said she was surprised by the $407 cash-only release fee when she arrived with $300. In response, the towing company says the fee was consistent with Volusia County towing ordinances and that both cash and Zelle were offered as payment methods, which are allowed under Florida law. They also stated that an itemized receipt was sent to her email on both Friday and Monday after the tow.

Kendall alleges she was put on lengthy holds and could not get anyone to provide clear answers.

Forsman denies this, stating, “Our phone system has no voicemail or the ability to go straight to voicemail.” He also claims Kendall was informed of the tow by both the apartment office and their dispatch, and that her number was not blocked.

Registration and Ownership Issues

Forsman emphasizes they did not tow Kendall’s truck due to a missing plate sticker, acknowledging that Texas uses windshield-mounted stickers, but rather because the sticker itself displays an expired date of June 2025. He says they waited almost a month after the expiration date before issuing the 48-hour notice, “to allow her additional time to affix a valid registration sticker because they knew she was from out of state.”

"She never provided proof that her registration was in fact valid," he says. "We never told her she needed stickers on her plates that is why we took a photo of the sticker on the windshield."

Forsman also notes that Kendall is not the registered owner of the vehicle, which belongs to her father. He says the company requires a notarized letter of authorization for vehicle release—and that this is standard policy in many jurisdictions when the person retrieving the vehicle is not the listed owner.

Motor1 reached out to Kendall via direct message. We’ll update this if they respond.