JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — The owner of a local towing company speaks out hours after Jacksonville officers raided his business. The Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office served a search warrant on ASAP Towing and Storage on the Westside on Thursday afternoon.
This is the same company JSO cut ties with last year.
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ASAP Towing and Storage President Vince Serrano says he has nothing to hide.
“They’re not going to find anything,” Serrano said.
Serrano says he fully cooperated with police. Detectives asked for bank statements as far back as 2020, and Serrano says he gave them all.
“Everything that they went through, we gave them, and we have nothing to hide,” Serrano said.
Action News Jax got the search warrant, which says investigators believe the business has been “concealing evidence related to a crime.” It says they are looking for documents related to cars they towed and then sold in an auction, and whether ASAP reported any profits they made.
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Serrano claims he does everything legally.
“This Camaro, we’re owed $2,387,” Serrano said. “I sold it for $3,900 so in this car. I’m gonna post it as overages. We do this every month, four times a month, at the different yards.”
Action News Jax told you last year, both JSO and the St. Johns County Sheriff’s Office cut ties with ASAP Towing. JSO said the company towed more than a dozen cars from apartment complexes without approval from the properties.
Read: Two local law enforcement agencies sever ties with towing company, removed from wrecker list
Serrano claims this is retaliation.
“What’s occurring is JSO has little beef with us for whatever reason at this point in time, and this is a way to tarnish our image,” Serrano said.
“Marshall” Adkison is the former president of the Jacksonville Wrecker Association and has his own towing company that has been in business for about 30 years. He says JSO has gotten a lot stricter in auditing.
“I know they’ve looked at our books, they’ve looked at our records,” Adkison said.
Adkison says he doesn’t believe JSO would serve a search warrant for no reason.
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“I just don’t see them doing all this research and on everybody and only targeting one individual,” Adkison said.
Action News Jax reached out to JSO about the search warrant, and we haven’t heard back yet.
ASAP towing has gotten national attention before. The U.S. Justice Department settled with the company in 2020 when they were auctioning off cars owned by protected service members without obtaining court orders. ASAP had to pay nearly $100,000 to those affected.
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