We hear the complaints all the time: “That car has been sitting there for days, why haven’t the police towed it yet?” If it were that simple, we promise it would already be gone. 

Believe it or not, we can’t just roll up with a tow truck because a vehicle looks abandoned. Even if it hasn’t moved in days and is collecting enough leaves to start its own compost pile, there’s still a legal process that has to happen first.

Step one is making sure the vehicle isn’t stolen and figuring out who actually owns it. That means running the registration through PennDOT, checking the VIN, and confirming the registered owner.

Next comes the famous orange abandoned vehicle sticker you might see on the window. That’s not a decoration; it’s an official notice. And just as a friendly reminder: peeling the sticker off the window doesn’t magically make the vehicle “not abandoned.” We document the vehicle, the date, and its location, so the process keeps moving even if the sticker mysteriously disappears.

After that, we wait 72 hours to see if the vehicle is moved. If it is, great, problem solved. If not, the next step is sending a certified letter to the registered owner telling them to move it.

Then comes another waiting period. The owner gets up to 15 days to take care of the issue. Only after all of that can we finally tow the vehicle.

So when you see a vehicle sitting in the same spot for a while, it doesn’t mean it’s being ignored. It usually means the process is already underway, just moving at the speed required by law rather than the speed we’d all prefer.

Williamsport PSA: Due to the high volume of abandoned vehicle calls, our entire patrol division is now handling these complaints, rather than a single officer. This change is already improving efficiency and allowing us to address complaints more quickly.

Stay tuned for more Behind the Badge: Weekly Insights into Policing, where we break down common questions and misconceptions about how policing actually works.