Wilmore Bojangles Incident Sheds Light on Predatory Towing Issue

A legendary Charlotte newsman is speaking out after having his car wrongfully booted last week, striking a nerve with followers who have had similar experiences and shedding light on the practice of predatory towing in Charlotte.

Now he says he wants to take legal action against the tow company that targeted him and is even considering a class-action suit that would hold the entire industry accountable. 

Ken Koontz, known as the man who broke the color barrier in local news when he became WBTV’s first Black reporter in 1969, took to Facebook on Feb. 20 to warn friends and followers about an experience he had at a local Bojangles earlier that day. 

Koontz, now 77 and recovering from prostate cancer, said an employee with the Fort Mill-based company Hitch and Haul Heroes placed a boot on his car while he went inside the Bojangles at the corner of West Boulevard and South Tryon Street to use the restroom. 

When he returned to his car to retrieve some money to buy food after using the restroom, the tow truck driver stopped him and pointed out the demobilizing boot on his tire. The driver said he entered the restaurant to ask whose car was parked in the lot while Koontz was in the restroom. 

Koontz said that, while the driver was sympathetic, he claimed he could not remove the device unless he was given $400 in cash. 

Koontz called the police, who told him they could not help him and even threatened to write him a citation on top of the tow fees if he did not hand his keys over to the tow truck driver. The driver towed Koontz’s vehicle to a lot on Beatties Ford Road, where he was charged $750 to get it out. 

“I thought some new rules, regulations, laws and local ordinances were recently implemented to stop this very type of predatory booting,” Koontz wrote on Facebook. “Obviously CMPD (at least those two responding officers) turned [a] blind eye.” 

North Carolina’s Commercial Vehicle and Cargo Protection Act went into effect in December 2025, but it only restricts towing companies from targeting commercial vehicles or impounding the cargo of tractor trailers. 

The law made booting commercial motor vehicles for parking enforcement a Class 2 misdemeanor, but there are still not many protections on the books for residents like Koonts. 

Bojangles and tow company give conflicting explanations

His drive to get to the bottom of a story still strong, Koontz followed up with ownership at Hitch and Haul Heroes (HHH) as well as the Bojangles corporate office to find out who was at fault, getting conflicting stories from each. 

Koontz said HHH ownership originally told him they were under contract with Bojangles to tow any unauthorized cars from the lot and to do so aggressively, as the previous company had been fired for not acting aggressively enough. 

The HHH owner even told Koontz the company had called Bojangles’ corporate office before towing his car and gotten the go ahead. 

However, Koontz also reached out to Bojangles’ corporate office himself and met with the store’s manager along with district and area directors in the same parking lot where the incident happened. 

According to Koontz, the Bojangles leaders reimbursed him and told him the incident “never should  have happened,” adding that HHH wrongfully placed signage in their parking lot and had since been banned from their property. 

They denied ever being under contract with the company, but reporting from Queen City News on Thursday showed there may have been an under-the-table agreement. 

Read more: Bojangles and the Threat Posed by Private Equity Pirates (2024)

An unidentified HHH owner spoke with Queen City News for the story, showing them text messages between himself and the store manager that confirmed the two had been working together. 

Aside from showing that the manager would text HHH when they wanted a car towed, the texts also implied that HHH was offering a cut of the resulting revenue to the manager. 

In a conversation that appeared to show the manager inquiring whether the signage in the parking lot had been installed, the HHH owner told her “[yo]ur kick back will start today.” 

Queen City Nerve contacted HHH but was told nobody was available to comment on the incident or how it reimburses companies that allow the company to operate in their lots. 

We also reached out to Bojangles on Thursday to inquire about the revelation that there did appear to be an agreement between the company and management.

“Bojangles recently learned new information regarding this situation, and we are investigating it,” a spokesperson responded. “We’re sorry the incident occurred and appreciate the guest bringing it to our attention. We met with the customer directly and worked to make things right, and we have taken steps to ensure this does not happen again. We take matters like this very seriously and will determine any additional next steps once our review is complete.” 

Koontz said he plans to take legal action against HHH. 

“The company’s obviously predatory practice likely violates local city ordinances and perhaps other applicable laws including and not limited to trespassing,” he wrote. “The incident was an obvious embarrassment to me personally while [effecting] extreme emotional trauma, pain and suffering.” 

Speaking to Queen City Nerve a few days later, he added, “I know the [North Carolina] attorney general has had a particular interest in this issue, and hopefully, they will be responsive to my reaching out to them to explore this.” 

NC AG gets results in predatory towing case

Koontz’s experience came just days after the NC Department of Justice (NC DOJ) ruled against a separate Charlotte company for racially targeted towing and price gouging during the pandemic. 

In the state’s first discriminatory towing case, the NC DOJ’s Consumer Protection Division and Civil Rights Unit ordered David Satterfield, owner of Charlotte-based companies A1 Towing Solutions and Automobile Recovery and Parking Enforcement, to pay $30,000 in restitution to drivers whose vehicles were unlawfully towed by his companies or who were required to pay excessive prices to get their vehicles back. 

The NC DOJ sued Satterfield in 2020 for unlawfully booting and towing trucks that were delivering food, water and other medical supplies during the pandemic, then charging upwards of $4,000 for the release of those vehicles. 

Read more: Sheriff’s Office Settles Lawsuit Over Forced Hijab Removal for Mugshots (2025)

CMPD data showed that Satterfield’s drivers “towed vehicles owned by African Americans at an alarmingly high rate and almost exclusively operated in areas of Charlotte that have a majority African-American population,” according to the NC DOJ. 

Furthermore, some Black consumers alleged that Satterfield called them racial slurs and assaulted them while attempting to tow their vehicles. 

“We had evidence that the defendant broke price gouging laws and engaged in racially targeted towing” stated NC Attorney General Jeff Jackson in a release announcing the ruling. “This judgment will force him to pay back the victims and it will set a clear precedent: If you run a towing company that breaks that law, we are going to take you to court, and we’re going to stop you.”

Koontz said he plans to reach out to Jackson’s office to gauge his interest in pursuing another, larger case. 

“I’m getting so many comments from people who have gone through this similar experience, I’m getting a sense now of class action against the entire industry,” Koontz told Queen City Nerve. “It’s not just me, but for others who have wrongfully been victims of predatory towing. There are stories out there, man, that you just won’t believe. And this guy ain’t the only guy, that’s what pisses me off.”