Sacramento Concert‑Goers Trapped in a Parking Scam: Cars Vanish, Fees Soar

When the lights dimmed and the crowd roared at the Aftershock rock festival, a few concert‑goers were more worried about the parking lot than the stage. Bruce Capagli, who parked on Bercut Drive, returned to find his car gone and a hastily‑tacked sign pointing to a phone number.

He called the number, expecting a simple explanation, but instead was given an address on Del Paso Boulevard. That address turned out to be an auto‑body shop that had nothing to do with his vehicle. A stranger in a white Honda Civic shuttled him to a dusty, fenced‑in field in a residential neighborhood – a place that didn’t even have a sign saying “towing service here.”

“I knew something was off when we saw a Lincoln Navigator with a trailer pulling another car off the lot,” Capagli told CBS Sacramento. The driver handed him a pre‑printed receipt from a company called J&B Towing and demanded $562 for the “release” of his car.

Capagli’s doubts deepened when the paperwork listed Allied Universal as the party that authorized the tow, yet the phone number on the document matched the one he’d called. He suspects the affidavit was forged, a claim Allied Universal flatly denies, saying they only provide lobby‑security services and have no contracts with any tow companies.

The receipts were sketchy, too. They omitted the vehicle identification number and left out the exact times the car was towed and released – details you’d expect on a legitimate invoice.

When Capagli finally retrieved his vehicle, it was riddled with damage that rendered it undrivable. His insurance now treats the incident as a stolen vehicle rather than a simple towing mishap.

He isn’t alone. Several other drivers reported the same phone‑number detour, the same $562 charge, and receipts bearing the J&B Towing name in different parts of Sacramento and on different days. The owner of J&B Towing told CBS the business is legitimate but declined to provide a license number or any official documentation.

Local officials have yet to comment, and the mystery remains: Who is orchestrating these questionable tows, and why are concert‑goers left with empty lots and hefty bills? For now, the answer is a mix of poor signage, questionable paperwork, and a lot of frustration for anyone who simply wanted to enjoy some live music without losing their car.