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Coeur d'Alene Police tag cars in effort to move them for snow plows

Last week, police tagged 400 vehicles in the city, placing 48-hour warning stickers on the cars. If a vehicle owner didn't move their car in two days, it could be towed.

COEUR D'ALENE, Idaho — Coeur d'Alene's efforts to move abandoned cars on snow plow routes appears to be working.

Last week, police tagged 400 vehicles in the city, placing 48-hour warning stickers on the cars. If a vehicle owner didn't move their car in two days, it could be towed.

Drivers appeared to have received the message.

As of Wednesday, police had followed up on roughly half of the tagged problem cars. Only about a dozen cars had to be towed. All others had been moved or relocated by drivers. 

"It's been super busy," said Terry Vulles of Schaffer's Towing. 

The company has a contract with the city of Coeur d'Alene for towing jobs, including CDAPD's abandoned car emphasis.

 "I've had my guys out all morning just towing abandoned vehicles off the street. Usually two or three at a time," he said. 

Vulles estimated he had towed around 15 cars by Wednesday afternoon, up from the 10 cars police said they had towed by the end of Tuesday.

"City streets helped out by sending a front end loader ahead of our guys and dug [the cars] out," said CDAPD spokesman Mario Rios. 

The towing marks the first time in several years the city has been forced to tag and tow abandoned cars related to snow, according to Rios. 

"It's very rare," Rios had previously told KREM. 

Police say that cars left on snowy roads create problems on streets that are already narrow and pose safety hazards for ambulances and fire trucks attempting to travel down those roads. 

"There's a lot of extra work involved in towing when there's this much snow out there," said Vulles of the process. 

He added that the abandoned car towing jobs have made his crews running behind on other customer requests.

CDAPD says they plan to continue checking the locations of the remaining tagged cars this week.

RELATED: Explaining the differences in city towing rules in the Inland Northwest

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