What can I do about an employee at a tow company who tried to steal from me?
Get Legal Help Today
Compare Quotes From Top Companies and Save
Secured with SHA-256 Encryption
What can I do about an employee at a tow company who tried to steal from me?
I was in a car accident on a Friday was taken to the ER afterword. I did not find out until Saturday where my car was. I was told that I could not get anything out until Monday. Sunday I received notification from my bank that my information had been changed and that someone had tried to run over 10 transactions from $50 to $2000. None of them went through thank goodness. However, now I’m out my purse, my phone and some other items that were taken. The person that tried to run the transactions is the same name as an employee who works for the tow company Is there anything that I can do about this? We did file a police report.
Asked on January 16, 2019 under Criminal Law, Oklahoma
Answers:
SJZ, Member, New York Bar / FreeAdvice Contributing Attorney
Answered 5 years ago | Contributor
All you can do is file the police report and look to press charges, and also sue the individual involved personally for any losses you suffered. But you can only sue that worker individually--not the tow company.
An employer (so, for example, the tow company) is not liable or responsible for its employees' criminal acts, since committing crimes is not part of and is outside the scope of employment--employees are not hired to commit crimes. Employers, however, are only responsible for employee actions taken in the course or scope of employment. So if a tow driver had mishandled your car and damaged it while towing it, since that flows out of their job, you could sue the company. But stealing from you does not flow out of the job.
IMPORTANT NOTICE: The Answer(s) provided above are for general information only. The attorney providing the answer was not serving as the attorney for the person submitting the question or in any attorney-client relationship with such person. Laws may vary from state to state, and sometimes change. Tiny variations in the facts, or a fact not set forth in a question, often can change a legal outcome or an attorney's conclusion. Although AttorneyPages.com has verified the attorney was admitted to practice law in at least one jurisdiction, he or she may not be authorized to practice law in the jurisdiction referred to in the question, nor is he or she necessarily experienced in the area of the law involved. Unlike the information in the Answer(s) above, upon which you should NOT rely, for personal advice you can rely upon we suggest you retain an attorney to represent you.