Stinging The Bandits

Woody Guthrie once sang that "some will rob you with a six-gun, and some with a fountain pen." Others, it seems, tend to be far less subtle, as they can simply rob you with a tow-truck.In L.A., there's almost nothing as annoying as getting your car towed. So it's great to see the Police Commission approve a plan to take down bandit tow-truck drivers. Such truckers tow away cars under false pretenses, and charge exorbitant fees when drivers come to retrieve their vehicles. According to the Times, LAPD Captain Bradley Merritt told the commission that bandits get away with "thousands of vehicles" each year.