First of all, make sure your car was actually towed. Cities sometimes relocate vehicles for special events, construction, cleaning, or emergencies.
Your car was possibly moved to a street nearby instead of an impound lot. There’ll be signs in the area to indicate, so check to be sure. If you see these signs, call your city’s tow lot to confirm your vehicle’s location.
In Milwaukee, you can call the lot at 414-286-2700. If your city doesn’t own a tow lot, call the local police or ask personnel in the area.
No signs? Then your strong suspicions are probably right. Here’s how to track and recover your car if it was towed:
TL: DR
- For impounds or tows from a public area, call the non-emergency police line to know where your car was taken.
- For private property tows, check the property for a sign with the tow company’s number. Or ask the property owner.
- You’ll need a driver’s license, proof of ownership, and money to reclaim your vehicle.
- You must pay for the tow costs: maximum of $150 for private property tows plus storage fees: $25 – $35 (calculated daily).
- Cars abandoned for more than 10 days after an impound can be sold.
- To avoid shady tows, ask for proof of a citation, ask for an itemized bill, or confirm if they notified the police.
- Dispute tow fees by filing a complaint on the Department of Trade, Agriculture, and Consumer Protection’s website.
- To recover paid fees, you can sue the tow company in small claims court.
How to Find Your Towed Car in Wisconsin
If it was towed from a street, highway, or public area:
Call the local police
Your immediate best bet is to call the non-emergency police line. Your car was likely impounded by a traffic officer or local law enforcement, so they’ll know where it was taken. Most times, it’s the city lot if your city has one.
In Wisconsin, a private towing company can not tow cars from a public road without the owner’s permission. Unless they’re told to by an officer or have a special contract with the city.
If an officer impounded your car, it was due to any of the following:
- You parked in the wrong place.
- Your car was considered a traffic hazard.
- You left the car for over a day, and you missed or ignored the notice that was sent.
- You already have unpaid parking tickets.
- Your car was deemed “unsafe for operation.”
- Your car is unregistered or doesn’t have a license plate.
- Your car was designated as snowbound and wasn’t moved for two days.
- In rare cases, your car was reported as stolen or considered evidence in an investigation.
Check the tow lot database
In a major city like Milwaukee, most impounds lead to the city lot. If you’d rather not call the police, the lot has an online database you can check. You can search for your car using your license plate or VIN.
For Milwaukee, check FindMyTowedCar.org.
Call the city’s contracted towing storage
As of 2026, Milwaukee is the only city in Wisconsin with its own dedicated tow lot. Other cities contract private towing companies to use their lots for impounds.
If you know which tow truck service your city works with, you can call them directly. Madison works with Schmidt’s Towing (608-257-0505). Waukesha contracts Gene Elder’s Towing (1-262-542-8342) and Express Towing & Recovery (1-262-547-0911).
To know which tow lot your city or town is using, check the city’s official website and navigate to any of the Parking, Towing, or Accident sections.
Some cities, like Green Bay, don’t use a primary tow lot partner but rotate a list of towing companies instead. In that case, you have to call the local police, as they determine which specific lot your car was towed to.
If it was towed from private property
If you parked in:
- An apartment lot
- A retail parking lot
- A private yard
- A business property
…the property owner or property manager likely ordered the tow. Wisconsin law gives homeowners and businesses the right to remove any vehicle that’s on their property without permission.
In this case, your car’s likely in a towing company’s storage yard. To know which company was called to tow your car:
- Talk to the homeowner or property manager. Or just ask people living in the building. They might have seen the tow.
- Private properties sometimes have a “No Parking” sign to deter unwanted parking. So check the yard for a sign. It should have the towing company’s name and phone number.
- Tow truck services are required by law to notify the police before conducting a private property tow. So call the non-emergency police line. They can tell you which tow company reported your car.
How To Get Your Car Back From The Tow Lot
Once you know where your car is, you have to go to the lot to get it back. You’ll need the following:
- Valid Driver’s License: You need this to drive the car off the lot. Don’t have it? Go with a photo ID as well as someone with a driver’s license.
- Proof of Insurance: Required in cities like Milwaukee. If you are uninsured, the city lot requires a “relocation fee” to have a lot attendant drive it to the gate.
- Proof of Ownership: Title or registration.
- Money to pay: Most cities accept cash, credit cards, and cashier’s checks.
If you’re sending someone on your behalf, they must have:
- A valid driver’s license
- A notarized letter from you. The letter must list your vehicle’s identification by color, make, model, VIN, license plate number, and tow number. The towing company will give you the tow number.
- A copy of your identification.
How much will you pay to get your car from the tow lot?
Yes, as the car owner, you must pay for the tow’s cost. You also have to pay a storage fee that accumulates daily.
By Wisconsin law, towing costs and storage fees for private property tows should never be more than the following:
- $150 for a regular tow with a tow truck.
- $25 daily at an outdoor storage.
- $35 daily at an indoor storage.
- $150 for special tows or use of special equipment
- $3 extra per mile for tows exceeding 20 miles.
The only other fee tow truck companies are allowed to charge is the municipal fee. This is a special fee that specifically has to be requested by your city, and it should never exceed $35.
You certainly don’t have to pay for things like “administration” or “processing” fees. If a tow service charges that for a private property tow, you can dispute it and report them to the Department of Agriculture, Trade, and Consumer Protection (DATCP).
For public impounds, towing costs and storage fees are determined by the city. Read more on How Much Towing Costs in Wisconsin.
Why the best time to retrieve your car is now
Daily storage fees add up the longer you wait. But you risk losing the car entirely if you wait too long.
In Wisconsin, especially in “1st class” cities like Milwaukee, cars left unattended for more than 2 days are considered abandoned. Once a car is considered abandoned and towed, a notice is sent via certified mail to the owner to retrieve it.
If you ignore this notice for more than 10 days, the city can sell your car or junk it.
That’s not all. Whatever amount your car was sold for has to cover the towing, storage fees, and costs for organizing the sale. Otherwise, you’ll have to pay. If you don’t, the city can take you to court.
Yes, you can get sued or lose money for abandoning your vehicle.
If you were towed off private property, you have 30 days to pay off all charges associated with towing your car. If you miss the 30-day deadline, your car may be junked or sold off.
What Are Your Towing Rights? (How to Avoid Unnecessary Fees & Exploitation)
It’s common for tow companies to hustle people, especially in big cities like Milwaukee and Madison. Many will try to charge extra fees outside the standard required costs.
You can go to the tow lot and find your pending charges easily exceeding $500.
There are a few ways to spot and get out of a shady tow. If you’re lucky, you won’t have to pay for the tow at all:
Request proof of a citation:
Before a property owner can tow a car, they must have proper signage on their property indicating that parking is prohibited. If there’s no sign, they must call the police first and ask for a citation.
Basically, that tow can’t be legal without a citation. The officer has to physically arrive and place a ticket on the car.
So check the yard or property for a “No Parking” sign first. By law, it should be at least 4 feet high with 2-inch contrasting letters. You can actually dispute based on this technicality if the sign doesn’t meet those requirements.
If there’s no sign, ask the tow company for proof of a citation. They usually take pictures of the windshield ticket for proof. Or call the police. Confirm they’re aware of the tow and placed a ticket.
If there’s neither citation nor sign, it’s an illegal tow. In this case, take photos of the lot entrances immediately to prove the absence of “properly posted” signage. File an online complaint at DATCP or contact them.
Already paid the tow charges? You can sue in small claims court and recover the money as well as attorney fees.
Demand an itemized bill (Avoid the “special tow” trap):
Towing companies are required to provide a detailed breakdown of all fees upon request.
So ask for an itemized bill and check thoroughly. They shouldn’t charge beyond what’s legally required: the standard tow (not exceeding $150), daily storage fees, and municipality fees, if any.
A common hustle for predatory towing services, especially in Milwaukee, is to charge an extra $150 under “special tows” or use of special equipment.
This extra fee should only apply if your vehicle is over 10,000 pounds (and needs a heavy-duty tow) or its condition makes a regular tow impossible.
But the law vaguely interprets what makes a vehicle “special.” And some tow companies exploit this. If you’re certain your car is under the weight limit and doesn’t classify as special, file a complaint.
Confirm that they notified police.
Towing companies must notify the police before carrying out a private property tow. If they don’t, they are legally prohibited from collecting any fees.
Itemized bills or receipts should have a notification timestamp: the date and time they notified the police. If this is absent, it’s possible they didn’t notify the police. Call the non-emergency line to confirm
If they didn’t, you can dispute the tow and file a complaint.
Don’t pay to remove your belongings from the car
While uncommon, it’s not rare for tow lots to ask for payment just to get your stuff from the car. You don’t have to do this.
The law requires that tow lots release personal property (items not attached to the car, e.g., house keys, medicine, or wallets) upon request during business hours. But you must present proper identification first.
Can Your Car Insurance Get Involved?
No, not really. They most likely won’t be able to cover any fees related to impounds or private property tows. Standard car insurance policies offer coverage for roadside assistance or accident-related tows. They rarely ever deal with penalty tows.
They could cover repairs if your car were damaged during the tow or storage, but that depends on your policy. And the towing company is legally liable for that anyway.
What your car insurance might do is help find where your car was towed. That’s not a given, however, since it’s not their gig. Still, it won’t hurt to call and see if they could help with anything.
