Towed Car in Thousand Oaks: Station, Fees, Hearing

Published 17 September 2026

A car parked on a Lang Ranch street on Friday is missing by Tuesday. Before its owner starts ringing tow yards, one address can say who took it, on what grounds and what getting it back will cost - a single place, whoever ordered the tow.

The answer unfolds in the order an owner lives it: finding the record, learning why the car was taken, paying the yard and the City, contesting the tow, and - for a car taken from a shop's lot - checking the one-hour grace rule.

Thousand Oaks obtains its police service by contract with the County of Ventura, which makes the Thousand Oaks Police Department an arm of the Ventura County Sheriff's Office. Its station stands at 2101 East Olsen Road, the non-emergency number is (805) 494-8200, and every tow a deputy orders is recorded there.

Private-property tows end up in the same records, since CVC 22658 obliges the towing company to notify the local law enforcement agency once the car has been removed and is in transit, within 60 minutes of removal or 15 minutes of arriving at the yard, whichever comes sooner.

Keep the plate number handy and ask the desk three questions: which company holds the car, where its yard is, and whether an officer ordered the tow. The third answer determines whether the City's release fee and a hearing come into play. Phone ahead, too, and confirm the hours the desk handles releases.

Time limits come first. Under Thousand Oaks Municipal Code 4-3.410, a vehicle left in one spot on a city street for 72 consecutive hours or longer is improperly stored, and re-parking in the same place within 72 hours without moving an appreciable distance counts too, presumed whenever the odometer has advanced less than one mile. CVC 22651(k) requires exactly that kind of ordinance before an officer may order the car removed.

Large vehicles fall under a separate section. TOMC 4-3.424 bars anything longer than 25 feet, wider than 80 inches or taller than 82 inches from parking on a street from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on weekdays, holidays excluded; permits cover up to five consecutive days, and enforcement begins 24 hours after a complaint. That section, on its own, does not authorize a tow.

The remaining grounds sit in CVC 22651: blocking traffic, a driveway or a hydrant; at least five parking tickets left unpaid; registration more than six months expired; a driver taken into custody; or a temporary no-parking zone marked with signs. Street sweeping qualifies only where such signs are up; the City's sweeping page asks drivers to move their cars but sets out no tow rule.

CVC 22651.07 sets the yard's procedure for every tow, police or private: you receive an itemized invoice of actual charges before paying, may remove your personal property free during normal business hours, may take the car back within its first 72 hours without a lien fee, and may pay by cash, check or credit card. The Towing and Storage Fees and Access Notice on the office wall spells all of it out.

Dollar amounts are a different story, because California fixes none for a tow or a day of storage. CVC 22658 measures a private-property tow against the local law-enforcement rate and allows one day's charge for a car released within 24 hours of arrival; rates for a police-ordered tow go unpublished, so ask the yard by phone before you drive over.

The City adds its own line. A car impounded by the Thousand Oaks Police carries an administrative release fee, an amount the City decides and the police department collects, in addition to the yard's charges. It applies to police impounds only, never to private-property tows, and since the City Council last reset it in 2012, ask for the current amount.

Here the key statute is CVC 22852. Within 48 hours of storing the car, weekends and holidays aside, the agency that directed the storage must mail a notice to both the registered owner and the legal owner, and that notice offers a post-storage hearing. You have 10 days from the notice date to ask for one, and a visit, a letter or a phone call all count; the agency then has 48 hours, weekends and holidays again left out, to hold it. If the agency cannot establish that it had reasonable grounds to store the car, the tow and storage bill falls on it rather than on you.

A 30-day impound follows its own rules. CVC 14602.6 allows an officer to hold a car for 30 days when the person behind the wheel had a license under suspension or revocation, or had never been licensed. Notice goes out by mail within two working days, the same hearing is available, and the registered owner owes all towing and storage charges; the car can come out early if it was stolen, if the seizure was improper, or if the driver gets a license back or obtains one for the first time, along with proper insurance.

When the car disappeared from a lot, check CVC 22953 first. It covers private lots where the public parks for free, such as a shopping center or a restaurant: the owner has to wait an hour after you park before calling a tow truck, unless your car blocks a hydrant from within 15 feet, sits in a fire lane or a disabled stall, or obstructs a way in or out. The rule leaves residential lots out, and an owner who breaks it pays you double the tow and storage bill.

CVC 22658 covers everything else: a sign at every entrance naming the tow company and its phone number, written authorization from an owner or agent present at the time, a yard no more than 10 miles away, and release without conditions if you reach the car before it leaves the property, at no more than half the regular tow charge if it was already hooked up.

Each of those rules assumes the car was taken. One that is stuck rather than missing, say with two wheels off a canyon shoulder, calls for a winch, not a records desk: pulling a car back from the brush on Kanan Road or Decker Canyon. And a car that dies at The Oaks and goes where you choose is a breakdown tow you order from us, which reverses the whole process: no yard, no release fee, no hearing, one total agreed by phone, and the wheel-lift and flatbed service we run from Thousand Oaks delivers to your shop or your driveway.