After a Lamborghini Murciélago Roadster got towed in 2023, no one claimed it. The iconic sports car sat at a Torrance tow yard for five months, long enough that the towing company had the right to sell it.
The sale allowed the company to recoup its costs for the tow, storage and lien sale, about $11,332. But there was plenty left over: $99,668.
It all went to the California Department of Motor Vehicles.
A new story from CalMatters investigative reporter Byrhonda Lyons reveals that the DMV doesn’t notify owners of proceeds from sales like this and, it says, it doesn’t have to.
From the beginning of 2016 through fall 2024, the DMV collected more than $8 million from nearly 5,300 cars sold at auction, according to a CalMatters analysis of DMV data. In 2016, the DMV recorded $760,000 from the sales. That number rose by about 76% to $1.33 million in 2023, the data shows.
Not all the cars are as fancy as the Lambo. But lots of them brought in money for the state that likely would’ve been meaningful for their former owners.
- Shayla Myers, senior attorney for the Legal Aid Foundation of Los Angeles: “If there are excess funds, but people don’t know how to get them, they’re as good as vanished.”
Also:
- Had a bad experience with getting your car told? Tell us your story and help inform our reporting.
- See if your towed car has been sold for a profit with our lookup tool.
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Other Stories You Should Know
Kaiser strike enters new phase
From CalMatters local news fellow Joe Garcia:
After a five-month strike and unresolved bargaining negotiations, Southern California Kaiser Permanente agreed to mediation with the union representing its mental health workers.
The agreement follows Gov. Gavin Newsom urging Kaiser to enter “focused mediation” one month ago. On Monday the National Union of Healthcare Workers said former Health and Human Services Secretary Mark Ghaly and former Sacramento Mayor Darrell Steinberg will begin mediation talks March 10.
This does not mean the strike is over. But Steinberg helped resolve a similar Northern California strike in 2022. The Southern California therapists want the same contract and benefits that their counterparts negotiated, yet, so far, Kaiser executives maintain that the two geographic markets have different business models.
The nearly 2,400 Southern California striking therapists and mental health workers are demanding less hectic scheduling with more time for patient follow-up, cost of living wage increases and guaranteed pension plans for all union members.
AI bots as school guidance counselors?
With California schools facing overwhelming numbers of students compared to counselors, some schools have adopted chatbots powered by artificial intelligence to help ensure students get necessary advice. But while the technology is said to fill a gap in student services, experts warn it could also chip away at crucial social connections, writes CalMatters’ Tara García Mathewson.
In 2022 California’s student-to-counselor ratio was 464-to-1, according to federal data — far below the American School Counselor Association’s recommended ratio of 250-to-1. To address student needs, one Richmond charter school is developing an AI tool that enables high school seniors to text a chatbot about their futures and plan their next steps after graduation.
The California nonprofit CareerVillage also aggregates crowd-sourced questions and answers to help people navigate their career paths, which high schools and colleges across the U.S. are starting to integrate with their own advising resources.
But Julia Freeland Fisher, the education director at the nonprofit research organization Clayton Christensen Institute, argues that creating an “army of self-help bots” can erode the “network-building opportunities” that help students get their foot in the door.
- Freeland Fisher: “It’s so tempting to see these bots as cursory. ‘They’re not threatening real relationships.’ ‘These are just one-off chats.’ But we know from sociology that these one-off chats are actually big opportunities.”
And lastly: Immigration uncertainty
For many in Central California’s mixed-status families, the path to U.S. citizenship feels increasingly uncertain. Susana Canales-Barrón and video strategy director Robert Meeks have a video segment about how the debate over citizenship helps strengthen community bonds as part of our partnership with PBS SoCal. Watch it here.
SoCalMatters airs at 5:58 p.m. weekdays on PBS SoCal.
California Voices
CalMatters columnist Dan Walters: After 50 years, 11,000 columns and a handful of gubernatorial administrations, I’ve seen some massive transformations during my time covering the state Capitol.
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