Local man's spare car tagged for abandonment

Be extra careful where you park your car. It could be tagged for abandonment.

Steven Oman, a South Bend resident said, "Me and the wife came home one night and there was an orange sticker sitting on our car."

If you don't take the proper steps, you could be left with hundreds of dollars in fines.

"To some people a $185 isn't a lot of money, but for us it is," said Oman.

Oman says the car was not abandoned, rather it is used weekly as the family's spare vehicle and parked in that exact spot for the past ten years.

"How can they tag your car for abandonment when it has current plates, current registration? If they ran the plates they'd see 'Oh, it's registered to this house.'"

But in South Bend, a vehicle is considered abandoned if it is on public property for three days without being proven operable.

ABC 57 tried to get to the bottom of why the city would issue the order, but the city did not return our calls. And the South Bend Police Department's only comment was that a car owner has 72 hours after getting tagged to resolve the issue.

"When you find that your car has been tagged, you can call the police department and tell them that you've made arrangements to have the car moved and they will work with you. But when they get no response and then three days later the car is still sitting there it becomes a road hazard. So just stay in contact with the police department when you notice that your car has been tagged," said Rick Hamilton, the owner of Hamilton Towing of South Bend.

Otherwise, the vehicle will be towed. Or worse, sold for scrap.