The damaged van. PHOTO: CBS

A forklift operator for an automobile towing company under contract to the City of Chicago acknowledged scraping the passenger side of a van while moving it in a storage yard. Vandalism was blamed for the shattering of a side window on the vehicle.

Pam Zekman, an investigative journalist for the CBS-network television station in Chicago, heard from van owner Frederick A Stanley of South Lake Park Avenue about the damage and the towing company's extremely slow payment for the repairs ("City's Tow Company").

Zekman says that United Road Towing Inc paid Stanley's USD2,000 claim under pressure from the broadcasting station and suspended three employees without pay for several days for damaging the van and mishandling the claim.

United Road, based in Mokena, Illinois, bills itself as the nation's largest towing company. The city reports about 700 damage claims over two years for about 81,000 cars towed to the lot.