Auto Towing, based out of this yard in Hunters Point, is accused of illegally entering private property to tow away people's cars — and targeting vulnerable non-English speakers.

The city of San Francisco is moving to expedite earlier sanctions it leveled against an allegedly predatory towing company accused of installing fraudulent no parking signs in a bank parking lot — and then trespassing on private property to haul off customers’ cars without the bank’s permission. The victims of this purported scam were largely Spanish and Cantonese speakers, as well as a number of disabled drivers who were displaying placards within their cars. 

City Attorney David Chiu initiated debarment proceedings against Auto Towing in August, a lengthy procedure that would result in the company being ineligible to bid on or receive city contracts for up to five years. Chiu’s office upped the ante on Feb. 2, moving to suspend the company, its ownership and its sister companies — an immediate move that bars Auto Towing from city contracts, even while the debarment proceedings are working their way through the legal system. 

His filing comes after the District Attorney charged Auto Towing’s principals, Jose Badillo and Abigail Fuentes, in October with multiple felony counts, including welfare fraud, grand theft and perjury. The couple, who have children together, are accused of duplicitously applying for and receiving welfare funds from Medi-Cal, CalFresh and CalWORKS for themselves and their dependents between 2018 and 2023 — despite “jointly operating three tow businesses in San Francisco, generating over $2 million in gross annual income.”  

Last week’s suspension order covers Badillo, Fuentes and Auto Towing CEO Juan Fuentes, as well as businesses Auto Towing, Jose’s Towing and Specialty Towing. Jail records show Badillo was booked on Oct. 7 for grand theft and obtaining aid by misrepresentation. 

An affidavit produced by a San Francisco welfare-fraud investigator alleged that Abigail Badillo was hired as a San Francisco Human Services Agency eligibility worker — and approved Jose Badillo’s application for welfare benefits without disclosing their relationship. 

While Jose Badillo reported he made $1,000 a month with no assets, property or vehicles, the affidavit reveals that their businesses had grossed in excess of $2 million every year since 2018. This enabled them to “purchase two commercial and two residential properties, several vehicles and vessels (boats). The most recent purchase, 4/24/23, was a 2023 Lamborghini valued at $288,786.” 

All told, Fuentes received just over $78,000 in benefits for herself and her children, and Badillo drew nearly $84,000 for himself and his parents.  

“Auto Towing intentionally misled and scammed people out of hundreds of dollars by illegally towing cars and making them hard to retrieve,” Chiu said in a statement.

“Now we also know that they took advantage of the public, and defrauded our safety-net programs. Fuentes and Badillo have demonstrated a clear pattern of predatory behavior designed to enrich themselves at the expense of the most vulnerable among us. Our City has no interest in contracting with exploitative businesses engaged in illegal conduct.”

Following Mission Local’s August articles, a number of aggrieved readers reached out and told horror stories of their own regarding Auto Towing or its related companies. Through comments and emails, they expressed similar grievances as those in Chiu’s filing; one person said that they paid up to $700 to retrieve their car after an illegal tow.

Andy Soohoo, one of the victims affected by the allegedly illegal towing, said that the company “refused to release the car even [though] we paid, because he said we were rude to him.” 

Other allegations from victims accuse the company and its employees of “holding personal belongings for ransom,” as well as refusing to release illegally towed cars for days on end.

A message left for Fuentes and Badillo taken by an Auto Towing employee was not immediately returned.

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Managing Editor/Columnist. Joe was born in San Francisco, raised in the Bay Area, and attended U.C. Berkeley. He never left.

“Your humble narrator” was a writer and columnist for SF Weekly from 2007 to 2015, and a senior editor at San Francisco Magazine from 2015 to 2017. You may also have read his work in the Guardian (U.S. and U.K.); San Francisco Public Press; San Francisco Chronicle; San Francisco Examiner; Dallas Morning News; and elsewhere.

He resides in the Excelsior with his wife and three (!) kids, 4.3 miles from his birthplace and 5,474 from hers.

The Northern California branch of the Society of Professional Journalists named Eskenazi the 2019 Journalist of the Year.

Gilare Zada is a Kurdish American, hailing from San Diego, California. She attended Stanford University, where she earned her bachelor's in English and her master's in journalism. During her time writing for the Stanford magazine and the Peninsula Press, she grew passionate about narrative form and function within the reporting sphere. At Mission Local, Gilare hopes to use her data skills to deliver human stories, as well as add Spanish to her list of four languages.

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18 Comments

  1. I wonder why they aren’t also being charged with multiples counts of fraud for all the vehicles they illegally towed 🤔

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    1. I don’t know what you all are talking about but when the security of the property I live on kept taking my cars for no reason these people treated me right and worked with me on giving me my cars back and were prompt with their service.So I know from experience with these people that these people are not that bad and they have good business manners

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      1. Sounds like your just trying to cover up all the scandalous things they have done just because you had a positive interaction. They need to be held accountable for their wrong doings. Shame on you for trying to deflect

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  2. I am not religious, but I do believe if Hell exists, it is for people like this.

    Bravo to ML and the City Attorney for following the money and staying on top of this.

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  3. Here it is in a nutshell.
    Sanctions?
    San Quentin.
    San Francisco has been a tow scam mafia operation since, most likely, the invention of the tow truck.
    And for whoever in City Hall was overseeing this “contract”:
    Out the door with no pension and no Cadillac benefits.
    Maybe some San Quentin too.
    Gotta be a kickback in there somewhere.
    Look harder.

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  4. Should be put in prison and kids should be raised by real parents. Defrauding the state is far worse than kidnapping cars…they are stealing money right from your paycheck…while they live in luxury. Jail..jail…jail. For a long time

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  5. This is becoming a problem all over America. Why can’t cities put an end to this before people start getting mad and people get killed.

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  6. Fiat Lux. Excellent investigative reporting by Ms Zada (Go Cardinals) and Mr. Eskenazi (Go Bear). Thank you for illuminating the exploitation of the vulnerable. I doubt the SF City Attorney would have taken any civil actions if not for the investigative reporting. The SF DA is probably overwhelmed to look into this. Perhaps, the Federal DOJ can help.
    The owners of the towing companies and their employees were probably victims of oppression themselves, and sadly, some, if not all, have become oppressors of the vulnerable. Given the audacity of the alleged crimes, I wonder if more serious malfeasance has been committed within the towing organization.

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  7. I’m still waiting for a refund for my 2016 Mitsubishi outlander SEL that caught fire under the hood. The city still hasn’t released my vehicle. 5-23-2023 day of fire. Today’s date … 2024.do the math.

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