JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Last week, the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office raided ASAP Towing and Storage’s four locations.
The company’s president and owner, Vince Serrano, told the I-TEAM after the raid that he had done nothing wrong.
Serrano provided a warrant showing JSO was investigating allegations of fraud and theft.
The I-TEAM has now obtained the incident report associated with the warrant. Much of the report is redacted, but it does say JSO discovered financial irregularities in an audit it performed of towing companies last year.
The report reads, “In October 2023, the JSO Wrecker Regulation Unit conducted a required audit of all 11 towing companies that were on the JSO TOL (Towing Operators List). The audit concluded with the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office Wrecker Regulations Unit recovered approximately $253,000 of unpaid overages.”
An overage is an amount that a towing company must deposit with the Clerk of the Circuit Courts after recovering their towing, storage costs, and cost of sale for each vehicle sold at their public sale.
The audit resulted in the permanent removal of one towing company and the suspension of another towing company for not depositing their overages as required by Florida State Statute.
The I-TEAM has submitted requests for more information on the towing companies punished as a result of the audit, as well as records related to overages deposited with the clerk of court.
“The audit also identified a change that had to be made to help deter further violations and non-compliance of the F.S.S. and COJ MO. This change required all towing companies (TOL or non-TOL) to produce copies of their previous months’ public sale documents prior to the detectives signing off on any paperwork they needed for their current month’s public sales,” the incident report states.
Serrano declined an interview on-camera Thursday at his lawyer’s advice, but he insists he reports the overages he receives.
ASAP Towing holds regular public auctions on unclaimed cars at their locations.
Independent used car dealer Vitalij Sokol picked up two vehicles at a public auction at ASAP’s Shad Road location on Thursday.
“I don’t know anybody else that does it, which is great. If anybody else are doing it, I’ll be there, you know, because I’m an independent dealer. This is great for me,” he said.
Sokol said he doesn’t know the details of JSO’s investigation into ASAP, but he believes the company is above board.