Colorado Springs resident stuck with $1,700 bill after apartment complex tows car

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (KRDO) -- Despite his vehicle being listed on the apartment lease, a Colorado Springs man had his car towed out of his complex's parking lot while he was out of state.

Rodney Ayers says his Chevy Equinox was towed from the Canyon Ranch Apartments after being parked at the complex for just four days.

This past March, Ayers parked his car in one of the complex's open spots. Then, his son came and drove him to Denver International Airport for a flight to Arizona. Ayers was visiting his wife, who's working out of state for now.

But just four days after he left, his car was towed. He had no idea, until he returned two months later, to find no car and eventually a big bill for the tow.

"Why would you tow it when our car was on the lease?" Ayers questions.

Ayers' 2014 Chevy Equinox is listed on his lease, but he says the towing company got the go ahead from his apartment complex to tow it.

"They say 'well your car didn't move.' Well of course my car wouldn't move, because I'm out of town," he says.

By the time Ayers returned to Colorado Springs, his tow bill had been sent to collections.

He had to pay more than $1,700 dollars to get his vehicle back, or it was going to auction. He says his credit score took a 100 point hit.

"It caused me not only to have a ding on my credit but I was actually in line to get a couple of business deals."

The lease says Ayers can have one car in one of the assigned carports, and one other on the property-- where the car was towed from.

Ayers claims he was told the car was later towed because it was, 'obviously inoperable.'

Pictures from when the car was picked up from the creditor seem to show otherwise.

"That's their words to me," Ayers adds. "The car didn't move so that it makes it inoperable."

Ayers has lived at Canyon Ranch for three years and renewed his lease before the towing dispute happened. He'd like to take his case to small claims court, but fears it may cost him more to do so in the long run.

KRDO reached out to American Capital Realty, the company that owns Canyon Ranch.

KRDO asked the company why Ayers should have to pay for the tow when his car is clearly listed on the lease.

"I can't discuss anything related to my residents," Laura Neighbor, with American Capital Realty said.

Neighbor claimed that this version of events wasn't the whole story, but declined to explain why. Neighbor says the company, "served [Ayers] the best we could."

"Look, you're going to do whatever you're going to do," she said of KRDO. "You're more than welcome to do what you need to do."

That answer though is not what Ayers wanted to hear.

"I'm extremely upset because it's like she's very unprofessional," Ayers said. "We're asking to just make things right.”