I don't think the D&L is losing anything in that arrangement. They're only ever entitled to the towing and storage fees. Any excess above the towing and stora

I don't think the D&L is losing anything in that arrangement. They're only ever entitled to the towing and storage fees. Any excess above the towing and storage fees goes to the owner. Fairly pricing the car may make it take longer to sell. Assuming that towing is much more profitable than storage and that their business is mostly storage limited (e.g. they could tow more but their lot quickly fills)-- then anything that helps them quickly turn over cars-- including fast sales and line skipping-- can make them a lot more money. The only way selling hurts them is if they're so towing limited that quickly selling cars will leave their lot empty when they could have otherwise been earning storage fees. And even then, a car with storage fees in-excess of its value will never get picked up nor sell for more than those fees and could easily turn into a loss for them. Given that crooks like these can probably just go around and tow random cars should their lot ever be too empty, I'm going to guess that not having enough to maximize their storage income was never their problem.