"I know two guys whose trucks just got repossessed," he said yesterday, talking at length because there's not much work for him lately in Northeast Philly, his usual towing turf. "Ever since that guy got shot, we're all getting hurt."
That shot heard 'round the city was fired July 19 by one tow-truck operator into the left thigh of a competitor when both showed up at the same Feltonville accident scene.
In the days afterward, each towing company was vandalized: One was riddled with bullets, one had its trucks torched. Each accused the other of retaliation, but rumors swirled that both acts were self-sabotage, meant to muddle investigation.
It wasn't our finest "Love, Philadelphia - XOXO!" moment.
Anyway, as you may recall, much outcry ensued about the "Wild West" towing culture that not only pits operators against each other but rips off unsuspecting drivers who get hosed on everything from towing and storage fees to repair bills.
City Councilmen Frank Rizzo and Jim Kenney - longtime avengers for consumer towing rights, although not always in sync on what reform should entail - elbowed into the fray.
Kenney called for a suspension of the city's "rotational" towing system until every company on the list could be vetted for the right licenses and other requirements to ensure fairness and safety for consumers.
And Rizzo got the Police Department to send news of traffic accidents to laptops in officers' cars, instead of over police-radio airwaves, so that wreck-chasers listening to police scanners won't descend on crash sites before cops get there and bully owners into a deal.
Suffice it to say that Kenney's rotation-list suspension isn't doing in operators like Yeretzian, who says that he never got calls off the joke of a list to begin with.
It's that Rizzo-sponsored info embargo that's punched a hole in Yeretzian's business.
