‘The whole parking lot is gone’: Dozens stranded after vehicles towed during Trump campaign rally

CHARLOTTE, N.C. (WBTV/Gray News) - Dozens of people found themselves stranded following former President Donald Trump’s campaign rally in Charlotte on Wednesday.

Parking was at a premium after crowds swarmed the Bojangles Coliseum’s parking lots to hear the Republican presidential nominee’s speech.

Some of those who attended said they spoke to a manager at a nearby Dunkin’ location who told them they could park on the property.

However, the attendees said when they returned to the lot after the campaign event, they found their vehicles gone.

While the drivers were inside the rally, tow trucks showed up and began hooking up vehicles.

“The managers inside promised that they could park here,” attendee Zander DeSoto said. “Some of the people even gave money to the people inside.”

However, those who had their cars towed now had to pay hundreds of dollars to the towing company to get their vehicles back.

Gotcha Towing, the group responsible for pulling the cars, said there was a sign in the lot that warned drivers about illegally parked cars being removed. The company added that the manager of the Dunkin’ store contacted them, asking them to tow the vehicles off the property.

The towing company said the drivers would have to pay $380 to get their vehicles.

“Something very fishy going on here, because I’ve never seen anything like this happen before,” another rally attendee said.

Another person said when they went to confront the Dunkin’ manager the store employees locked the doors and refused to come out.

“The whole parking lot is gone … everybody,” he said. “They locked the doors; they won’t answer our calls and they won’t even answer at the window.”

The Crump family said they drove more than two hours for Wednesday’s rally and parked at the Dunkin’ store just to find their vehicle towed.

“Other people were saying the same thing too, that we could park here,” the family shared.

Charlotte-Mecklenburg police ended up responding and shuttled some of the drivers to the towing yard to get their vehicles out.

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