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OREM -- Black Friday shopping turned into a nightmare for dozens of people in Orem when they discovered their cars had been towed or booted.
The area around Walmart at 1355 Sandhill Rd. was packed with cars around midnight. Some drivers say they basically followed the pack, parking in what turned out to be a private parking lot west of the Walmart.
Milarka Mendez says she parked, went inside to shop, then returned to find her car was gone. Other cars had boots on them.
"I asked the guy and he's like, ‘Sorry there's nothing we can do. It's $229 or $230 to get your car and it's cheaper to do it tomorrow.' That's what he said," Mendez said.
She says she didn't see any no parking signs posted in the area. But the tow truck driver informed her she had parked on private property and the company was towing as many cars as possible.
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Customers waiting in line at Sears near downtown Salt Lake City were quite good-natured about being among the throngs who were ready to make the "mad dash" into shopping nirvana when the store officially opened at 4 a.m.Others, like Glen Thomas, say they did see the parking by permit only sign.
"He said there were some signs saying it's private property and if (shoppers) weren't using these businesses here they could be towed. But the business isn't even open. So it's kind of unfortunate," he said. "There's a legal thing they should do and a right thing. It certainly wasn't right to tow and boot people here tonight."
KSL observed eight tows and 12 boots in a one-hour period. We called the towing company, KPE Express, and were told no one could comment until Monday.
"It's real unfortunate for the people that came out on Thanksgiving to try and get a little shopping done and enjoy themselves and have to go through that and come out and have their car towed or booted," said Thomas.
In an unrelated incident, a group of people standing in line for Black Friday shopping outside the nearby Toys R Us in Orem got hit with pepper spray. Police say the spray came from a passing car around midnight. It's unknown whether anyone was hurt.
In Los Angeles, 20 people suffered minor injuries when a woman shot pepper spray to keep shoppers from merchandise she wanted during a Black Friday sale.
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Written with contributions from Nkoyo Iyamba and Andrew Adams.
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