While it's a particularly brazen scenario meant to illustrate the concept, the point is the law does allow that. This doesn't simply apply to cars left on the s

While it's a particularly brazen scenario meant to illustrate the concept, the point is the law does allow that. This doesn't simply apply to cars left on the side of the road, this is any car that's been towed for any reason. A car worth a heck of a lot more than $1500 can have an expired parking permit and no one available to pick it up (or even recognize it has been towed) within 15 days. You go on vacation or you're in the hospital and when you get back home you don't have a car anymore because you were parked only 13 feet away from a fire hydrant. And particularly for low income individuals, coming up with the money to pay the fine to get your vehicle out of impound within 15 days may be a legitimate financial burden, especially if without your vehicle you can no longer commute to work, or you lost your job for whatever reason led to the vehicle being impounded. It's an obvious scenario for abuse.