City-Contracted Tow Company, Mr. C's Towing, Accused of Preying on Low-Income and Disabled Motorists (Guest Post by Marilyn Angel)

Victor Lopez was still recovering from a stroke when he stepped outside in Huntington Park one day in August 2025 and found his car gone. Lopez could not walk at the time. His baby’s car seat was inside, along with the disabled parking placard he had been using since his stroke.

Lopez thought someone had stolen it. He began filing a stolen-vehicle report with police when about an hour after the car disappeared, he said, word came that it had been found.

It hadn’t been stolen. Mr. C’s Towing had taken it.

Lopez said his disabled placard was partially covered by a windshield shade but remained visible from the sides. When he retrieved the car, he showed employees the placard and questioned the tow. He said a manager refused to meet with him.

Mr. C’s charged Lopez more than $400 to get his car back. Still recovering from his stroke, he decided not to fight. “I wasn’t trying to fight or argue,” Lopez said. “So I let it go.”

Jesus Menchaca described a similar experience.

Menchaca said his truck was taken to the company’s Huntington Park facility despite a disabled parking placard hanging from its rearview mirror. When he asked who authorized the tow, he said employees gave him different answers: property management, a truck patrolling the area, then simply “patrol.” He only got his truck back after paying the release fee.

Many motorists question a tow without taking it to court. The Better Business Bureau lists 52 complaints against Mr. C’s in the past three years and gives the company an F rating, with the majority of those complaints left unanswered by the company.

Others took Mr. C’s to court, and won. Los Angeles County Superior Court records show the company has faced 105 small-claims lawsuits in the county over the past 10 years, 53 of them in the past five.

Across several cases, the same questions surface: Who ordered the tow? What gave Mr. C’s the authority to take the car? And did its paperwork match what really happened?

In 2017, 19-year-old Celeste Selena Godoy challenged Mr. C’s after the company towed her car from Guadalajara Meat Market in South Gate. Mr. C’s said a market employee had authorized the tow, but its authorization form did not identify the market or provide the employee’s job title or address. The court found the tow illegal, and Godoy ultimately received $720.

In 2026, Jesus Ola won $3,933.40 after Mr. C’s towed his car twice from his designated apartment parking space. Although Ola’s parking permit had expired, the court found no proof that anyone specifically requested the tows. The company’s authorization forms were also missing information required under California law.

Two months later, Miguel Angel Magana challenged a tow from a Ralph’s lot where customers had two hours of free parking. Mr. C’s paperwork placed his car there at 2:30 p.m. Magana presented unrebutted evidence that it was not there at that time and that he was shopping at 3:40 p.m. The judge found the tow illegal and awarded him $654.50.

Mr. C’s tows cars from private property, side streets and public parking areas across Southeast Los Angeles, a predominantly Latino region where many families live on lower incomes. Public records document municipal towing relationships with Lynwood, South Gate, Huntington Park, Vernon, Montebello, Downey and Bell.

Its reach is growing. In September 2026, South Gate approved a project allowing Mr. C’s to expand its towing and impound operations across a 2.29-acre property along Rayo and Atlantic avenues.

A parking violation alone does not necessarily authorize a tow. But motorists may not know the difference. For low-income working-class residents and disabled motorists, hundreds of dollars can hurt, and paying may be easier than fighting. That leaves those least able to challenge a tow especially vulnerable, especially when the victims appear to be primarily Hispanic.

The complaints, lawsuits and court findings warrant scrutiny beyond the motorists willing to fight back. Cities that give Mr. C’s towing authority should independently audit its records, investigate complaints against the company and make their findings public.

Lee Kuan Yew, former prime minister of Singapore once said, "The acid test of any legal system is not the greatness or grandeur of its ideal concepts, but whether in fact it is able to produce order and justice in the relationships between man and man and between man and the State."

City of Los Angeles Nearly Tripled My Fine; LA Times Publishes My Story

Paul Cook wasn't about to fold — not with Mohandas Gandhi's words ringing in his ears.

Never mind that the issue at the center of the David-versus-Goliath fight was a parking ticket that he could afford to pay. Never mind that if he was the David, then the Goliath was the Los Angeles Department of Transportation's parking division, notoriously difficult to challenge. Never mind that even his friends told him fighting would be a waste of time.

"People are just, like, 'You can't win against them,'" Cook said. "For me, it's just — it's wrong."

So drawing on Gandhi's teachings about the unwavering power of righteous "soul strength" to overcome the greatest obstacles, Cook set forth on a journey through L.A.'s byzantine parking dispute process that would last some 16 months.

Cook's story starts on Dec. 19, 2024, in Chinatown, when he returned to his car to find a yellow envelope tucked under his windshield wiper. Recalling the day in a recent interview with The Times, Cook quickly turns indignant about the bureaucratic odyssey that yellow slip launched. He's mad not just because he feels his time was wasted, but also because he knows that many others without his legal background, perseverance or media savvy would simply pay the fine.

"The city of Los Angeles is unreasonable," Cook told The Times. "You get a parking ticket, they want their pound of flesh."

. . .

Read more here.

Gordon and Eliza Allen Save Their Neighbor's Life During the Eaton Fire

 

Gordon and Eliza Allen, who lost their home in the Eaton Fire, risk their lives to save their neighbor. Watch video here:

https://test-mobile-feeds.cbsnews.com/losangeles/video/a-neighborly-rescue-for-sports-central-producer/

2026 - the Year of the Fire Horse - the Year of Velocity

2026 is the Year of the Fire Horse, which translates into the Year of Velocity. On the Jewish holiday of Yom Kippur, I fasted without drinking water or eating food for an entire day. During that time, I was reading the Holy Scripture, and I felt like the Lord told me to proclaim this verse:

“But the LORD is still in the city; he does what is right and never what is wrong. Every morning without fail, he brings justice to his people. And yet the unrighteous people there keep on doing wrong and are not ashamed.” (Zephaniah 3:5.)

Horses represent movement, power, work, loyalty, and kindness. In Revelation, horses are agents of divine judgment. The red one, in particular, represents war. Given the verse I was given, I believe this is the year that God will act and grant judgment accordingly and swiftly.

* * *

The Year of the Snake, 2025, as predicted, was a difficult year. It started with a crisis. My father’s nursing home burned down; thankfully, he lived. It entered with attempting to resolve a crisis, where it appears that fraudsters dangerously staged a car crash - where the car spun out and hit the freeway rails. The aftermath was ugly.

Then, in the middle of 2025, I had great difficulty in one of my cases. Finally, the last season of the year, from Fall into Winter, ended with a personal crisis, which finally resolved on Christmas Day.

* * *

This year, I exposed a car crash that appears to have been an orchestrated fraud ring. Unfortunately, even after exposing them, this seems to have made little impact on the suspects.

I made a lot of progress on my main quiet title action case, which I will be writing more about this year.

The stepmother in my family’s life filed a conservatorship to try to take my father away from me, even though we had a three-year elder abuse restraining order against her. I was able to defeat the conservatorship in August of this year.

 * * *

Last year, I did my best to bring “the utter darkness into the light.”

In 2026, I’ll be writing more on my father’s case and the evils of elder abuse in our Los Angeles community. I just need some time. Sorry, I haven’t written as much in 2025. 

As you can see, 2025 was the year of getting repeatedly and venomously bitten. But on the flip side, it was also the year that grace and the antidote to these problems surfaced and purified.

2025 came with the Eaton Fires, the Pasadena car crash and its aftermath, the summary judgment erroneously granted in my father’s case, and a personal crisis, all of which were challenging. But I persevered.

How? I can’t even tell you, and I didn’t even know I had that in me. I believe my faith lit the path during the darkest times of 2025.

The Year of the Snake has ended. Thank God. I welcome the Year of the Horse, which in my life has been a prosperous symbol. I predict both velocity and justice for this year.

OpEd – Air New Zealand’s Plummeting Share Prices Spotlights its Problems with Customer Service

 

On November 30, 2020 – Air New Zealand was trading at $1.16 USD per share. About five years later, it’s at $0.585. It’s lost almost half its value.  No wonder; recently, Forsyth Barr analysts downgraded their profit forecasts for the national airline and now says the company is either loss-making, or at best, made a 'small' profit in the second half of the 2025 financial year.

Even in April of this year, Air NZ tried to downplay its losses by stating that the price “is down 33% over five years [more like 50%], but the total shareholder return is 30% once you include the dividend. That's better than the market which returned 24% over the same time.” In other words: better you lost only half your money, instead of all your money.

In stark contrast, during November of 2020, Singapore Air sold at $6.82 per share. Now, it’s at $10.21 a share, an almost 50% return in the black. What’s happening?

The exiting CEO of Air NZ, Greg Foran, wants to blame its technology and machines. On April 17, 2025 – Foran told Aviation A2Z, “A major factor in the reduced earnings forecast is ongoing engine reliability issues.” This tells you how off the mark he is.

Just as the company fudged the numbers about its stock losses, nothing could be further from the truth regarding Air NZ’s main problem: its terrible customer service.

In March and April of this year, I had the pleasure of flying on Singapore Airlines. I could not find an airline ticket. I contacted the executive office, who worked tirelessly, called me back three times, and found me the flight I needed.

Knowing the importance of the trip, Singapore Air gave me the best service on the airline. And when I departed from Singapore to Auckland, an employee from Singapore Air fixed a glitch in my e-visa issue by calling New Zealand Immigration and working it out with them for over 20 minutes.

Then came my experience with Air New Zealand. Although I had enough miles on a partner airline, Air New Zealand was not releasing any mileage tickets. When I contacted the executive office, they ignored my request. I had to complain to its mileage network program called Star Alliance. Even then, Air NZ said they couldn’t help me to find any mileage tickets, since it wouldn’t be fair to other customers. (In Air NZ’s mind everything is fair, when everyone gets bad customer service.)

Eventually, I was lucky to find a mileage ticket, but was then overcharged for my luggage from Wellington to Auckland. When I complained to the executive office again, not only did I get a sarcastic response from the executive assistant, I was told by the Chair of the Board that there was nothing they could do to fix the problem. They were being fair (again).

In December of 2024, native Kiwi, Grant Evans experienced similar types of problems. In short, saving “nickels and dimes”, instead of keeping their word to their customers. I thanked the chair and knew this company was not worth investing in. When I checked the sinking stock price, it only confirmed what my heart already knew. Air NZ was a dying business.

To be fair, Air NZ is blessed with hardworking and hospitable staff. The problem is with its leadership, its business objective of nickeling and diming customers, bait switching, and its broken trust with its customers. Like Gulf Air, who hired Singaporean CEO, Dr. Jeffrey Goh (a non native to Bahrain) it’s time for Air NZ to find new and more diverse and global leadership, who understand that businesses make money by serving their customers, not treating them like EFTPOS cards.

Biometric Evidence Key to Understanding CHP-Facilitated Auto Insurance Fraud

Biometric evidence that Raymundo Mendietamorante (“Raymundo”), accused professional car crasher and insurance fraudster, has facial features amazingly similar to those of Captain Mariano Santiago (“Santiago”) of the California Highway Patrol, Altadena Station. An international biometric expert, who wishes to remain anonymous, suggests that Raymundo is most likely the father of Santiago. In fact, after further investigation, it appears that at least one of Raymundo’s grandsons, may be Santiago’s son, suggesting that this this is one family auto insurance fraud ring.

On September 26, 2024 – Raymundo rear ended Arambula’s car and then smashed into the passenger side of Arambula’s car. The second impact caused Arambula’s red Toyota Prius to spin out and hit the freeway guardrail. At the time of the crash - Raymundo stated he was a Lyft Driver. His passenger Aldrin Garcia stated that he was a nurse, taking a paid ride to see his client.

Around 10 minutes after the crash, a bandit tow company picked up Arambula's car and charged him $1,700 for four days of towing. Officer Eric Voss appeared to know the driver of the tow truck and instructed the driver to tow both crashed cars.

Suspecting all was not right, the Legal Lens conducted an investigation. It found that a former employee, Vinny Smith, said that Raymundo works for Cyrus Towing, to "call" in cars. 

Also, this was not Raymundo's first car spin out. Another witness named Elias Hernandez stated that after making a lane change, that Raymundo collided into his car, spinning it out in similar manner to Arambula's.  Cyrus Towing then towed and impounded his car, later holding it for ransom.

Also, after examining the driver's license of both Garcia and Raymundo - Arambula discovered that both parties lived in the same unit in a trailer park located in Huntington Beach, discrediting that Garcia was a passenger for a Lyft ride. Furthermore, Arambula gathered evidence that Raymundo rear ended Arambula and that it was not a sideswipe.

On or around the October 14, 2024, Arambula met with Eric Voss and Sargeant Xavier Bejar and presented the new evidence. Initially, Bejar stated that a collision expert would be present at the meeting. No collision expert was present.

Arambula showed that the crack on Raymundo’s headlight is almost identical to the indentation left on Arambula’s rear bumper. 

Nonetheless, on or around Dec. 3, 2024 - the reviewing officer, Officer R. Bivins affirmed the result without making any changes. Shortly thereafter, Arambula requested another review of the report from Captain Santiago and requested a collision expert to investigate the matter. Santiago denied both requests.

Now, with the at fault report, both Aldrin Garcia and Raymundo hired attorneys. In June of 2025, Raymundo was paid out $20,000 and Garcia, $10,000. 

In February of 2025, the Legal Lens discovered that Cyrus Towing was preying on wildfire victims in Altadena. In fact, on February 18, 2025 - California's Department of Insurance released a press release, in which a clerk named Rosa Isela Santistevan was passing on collision reports to a Andre Angelo Reyes. Reyes would then facilitate phone calls "pretending to be from their insurance company and coordinate having [victims'] vehicle towed to a repair center that they misrepresented as approved by the insurance company.”

Then around May of 2025, Paul Cook of the Legal Lens noticed the facial resemblance of Raymundo with Captain Santiago and Aldrin Garcia. Cook also noticed the similarities amongst other defendants who have been accused of auto insurance fraud. Cook also noticed the Filipino linkage in the fraud ring.

Cook further discovered that Reyes may be an aspiring actor and that Garcia is professional skateboarder. This reveals a motive, as both professions are expensive to fund, until one breaks through.

Cook's international biometric expert confirmed that Raymundo's facial features strongly suggest that he is the father of Captain Santiago.

It appears that Raymundo is the father of Santiago, and the grandfather of Reyes and Garcia. Furthermore, the Legal Lens suspects that Santiago is the father of Reyes, and Santistevan is his mother. Diagram provided below.

If this is true, it means that this is all one family fraud business, an alliance between criminal defendants and the government. Such a relationship facilitates a coverup of an actual investigation; an honest CHP collision report; and a potential payout for everyone involved, at the harm of the victim, here Arambula.

The Legal Lens believes that Sgt. Bejar needs to be investigated as to whether he’s related to Captain Santiago as well. Arambula has been left with a damaged back; uncompensated; and marked at fault – harming his driving record. 

In today's American government, “the lie has become not just a moral category but a pillar of the State.” – Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, Noble Laureate.

*All parties are presumed innocent, until otherwise proven.

Baldwin Park City Council Appoints New City Manager With a History of Incompetence and Financial Mismanagement; Manuel Carrillo Suspected of Spiking Pay to Increase His Retirement Pay.

Baldwin Park City Council, after the resignation of its last City Manager, Enrique Zaldivar, appoints Manuel Carrillo, Jr. as new city manager. Carrillo has a history of incompetence and financial mismanagement. 

In May 29, 2015 - the Legal Lens accused Carrillo of laundering money through a sham nonprofit called the Baldwin Park Community Center Corporation ("BPCCC"). At the core of the allegation is that Carrillo has been allegedly laundering money through the BPCCC by running a sham event called the Santa Clothes Program. At that event, over $20,000 of gift cards would be purchased at Walmart. A few children would receive some. And the rest of those gift cards, tens of thousands of dollars worth, cannot be accounted for.

When the Legal Lens asked for him to account for the monies, he provided it a sham list of over 600 children. Many of the names have been confirmed to be non-existent, meaning those kids didn't exist.

As a result of the Legal Lens's reporting, the State of California dissolved the BPCCC. Instead, now, the City started a new nonprofit called the Baldwin Park Charitable Relief Foundation, which appears to be a slush fund for the council members. Carrillo is also a director of this nonprofit.

Also around 2014, staff revolted against Carrillo for paying them minimum wage, while he was the most overpaid parks and recreation director in Southern California. Carrillo gave a boxing coach, who worked there for around 20 years, a 40 cent raise an hour. At this revolt, staff complained that Carrillo was incompetent and uneducated.

The boxing program also protested Carrillo in 2013, which led to the program being open today. Carrillo's intention was to shut down the program and give the equipment for free to his cronies.

Others have complained that Carrillo stole from City funds when the City paid for gas, which was used for personal travel.

More recently, Carrillo has not done enough to protect the boxing program from an accused pedophile.

Cell phone records reveal that Carrillo was talking daily with disgraced Council Member Ricardo Pacheco, who has pled guilty to taking bribes.

Under Carrillo's management, both Barnes Park and Morgan Park have deteriorated. Barnes Park is notable for criminal loitering and drug activity.

Carrillo currently fails to account for where the money goes to from the parks and recreation program. Also, it appears that a lot of the grant money to parks is also accounted for.

It's suspected that Carrillo wants a bigger pay as City Manager, so he can retire at a higher pay, which is calculated by the last three years of one's salary.

In general, the Legal Lens rates Carrillo as an "F" for City Manager.