BOZEMAN — The Bozeman Police Department is investigating a report of a tow truck being shot at on Sunday afternoon at the Hawks Ridge condominiums near Montana State University.
This comes after a weekend of cracking down on illegal parking in the neighborhood largely made up of students.
The scene was described as chaotic by residents and town truck drivers — but according to witnesses, Saturday was worse.
“They were telling people to like get out of the way and stuff. And one guy got in his truck that was hooked up and took off with the tow strap on and was fighting the tow strap down the ramp,” said Oliva Monks, a resident at Hawks Ridge.
After an evening of towing cars and altercations on Friday night, MCM Towing returned to continue the job on Saturday.
“We returned Saturday night. We brought more enforcement,” said Jeff McCowen, a spokesperson with the tow truck company. “They gathered snowballs with rocks, they were throwing them at us. They also had thrown full beer cans from the tops of balconies and just about injured one of our personnel.”
“The tow truck driver that was coming in there, really just doing his job as requested and they wisely left the area that night, and tried to come back the next day to finish their job and what they’ve been asked to do,” said Bozeman Police Sergeant Travis Munter.
“And then this incident occurred.”
“It’s a very concerning situation, we’re just trying to do our jobs to keep the public safety up,” said McCowen.
Now some residents who had their cars towed are facing a heavy bill.
“They are now charging us almost $3,000 to get our car out even though we weren't involved in what happened Sunday. Our car got towed Friday,” said Madison Fried, whose boyfriend’s car was towed.
“At this time, some of these tow bills have gone up to $2600 for the reason being the damages that were created to the vehicles,” said McCowen.
Bozeman PD continues their investigation and has had a number of people in for questioning.
If you have any additional details about the incident that occurred Sunday, reach out to the Bozeman Police Department at 406-582-2000.
