New Haven Independent

Taking pity on a woman whose car was towed for no reason due a screwup at the city tax office, Tony Juliano, the owner of Tony’s Long Wharf towing company, handed Anna Festa a $95 check.

“So there’s one nice person in all of this,” said Festa, before meeting Juliano at his office Friday morning. (Juliano is pictured above at left, with Festa and son Giuseppe at right).

When Festa hitched a ride with a neighbor to Tony’s a few months ago, the journey capped a tearful two days for the young mother. Festa was home alone, trying to get two sick kids to the doctor, on Jan. 24 when she found her SUV had been seized. She paid over $800 to get her car back, then over three months later, she discovered that she had been towed for no reason, all due to a city screw-up.

Click here to read an Independent story recounting Festa’s woeful tale.

The city has admitted it double-billed Festa in the amount of $724. It has not offered to cover the $95 towing fee that Festa had to pay, in cash, to Tony’s Long Wharf.

The city has apparently left Juliano hung out to dry in this situation: The tax collector told him it was up to him as to whether he wanted to pay her back.

Juliano, a gentle man in a Tony’s baseball cap, volunteered to reach into his company’s pockets to pay her back.

“I do this out of the goodness of my heart,” said the towing operator, extending the offer upon hearing her plight. The good news reached her home Wednesday.

Return Trip

So Festa packed her two youngest boys in the car on Friday morning and made another trip down Sargent Drive.

“Where are we going?” asked her almost-3-year-old, Matteo.

“We’re going to see Tony,” replied Mom.

“Is he our friend?” Matteo asked.

The answer turned out to be “yes”: Juliano brought the trio upstairs and wrote Festa a check.

“I know it’s not your fault,” Festa told him.

“Our hands were tied,” said Juliano. When the city Plate Hunter program orders a car towed, his company’s not allowed to release it until the tax bill is paid. The two had a pleasant chat in Tony’s upstairs office.

“They should really give you your money back,” said Juliano of the city. “Go down there.”

Festa opted to take the kids home to East Rock, saving that battle for another day. The city told her she would have to wait “six to eight weeks — maybe” to get her money back. They gave her a form to apply for a refund; she hasn’t sent it in yet.

Festa balked at the possible two-month wait. When she coughed up the $724 to get her car back, she said, the tax collector’s office demanded a cashier check: “They wanted my money right then and there. Now I want my money, right then and there.”

The worst part of the whole ordeal, she said, was that the city tax collector told her “It’s your fault.”

“I hope the city takes an example from Tony,” Festa said on the way back home. “Not because he gave me my money back, but he’s a genuinely nice guy.”

Previous coverage of New Haven’s towing industry:

Mayor’s Favorite Marshal Rakes In $196K

“They’re Thieves”

Marshals Sent To School

DMV To Towing Companies: No Sealed Bids

Third Towing Scrape Detailed

Clergy “Exemption” Detailed

New Towing Probe Sought

$200 For 4 Hours

Towing Program Halted

Kimber Gets Off The (Towing) Hook

“We’re Not Double-Dipping”

Alvin Goes For The Chevy

Towing Co. Ducks Tax Bill