Apartment owners booting tenants' rides

ALBUQUERQUE (KRQE) - If you break the law, you're going to get the boot especially if you live in one Albuquerque apartment complex.

Alta Vista Apartments on Spanish Bit Street NE near Tramway and Montgomery NE is booting vehicles that have expired registrations. The complex sent out notices to residents earlier this year.

In the past month, KRQE News 13 cameras have recorded about a dozen vehicles disabled by a boot attached to the wheel of the vehicle.

"I had to pay $100 to take it off," one woman told News 13.

"Let the cops do their job," Gloria Chee, another Alta Vista resident said. "When it's driving on the road, then you catch them on the road. Don't come around and get them while it's parked."

The complex ordered the boots, but Ironstone Protective Services is company locking them on. They slap an orange warning sticker on the window and then clamp on the boot.

Shawn Johnson got the boot for his expired tag, but he doesn't live at Alta Vista. He was just visiting his girlfriend.

"I wasn't able to go to work today because my vehicle was booted," he told News 13. "I have to sell an iPod to a friend of mine to get the money to get the boot off so I get go to work tomorrow."

News 13 spotted an older, beat-up pickup truck in the lot with tags that expired in September 2006 although there was not boot on it. It turns out it's a utility truck for the apartment complex.

Residents called that hypocritical. So News 13 wanted to ask the apartment managers about their truck and whether the booting policy is an attempt to get rid of clunkers, get rid of law-breaking tenants or just make money. The staff had no comment.

When News 13 approached Ironstone Protective Services, a manager said he couldn't discuss the details of a private company with an apartment contract. But he did say residents are responsible for their own guests, which includes informing them of the new booting policy.

The Albuquerque City Attorney's Office said the apartment complex towing vehicles may not be legal. The law says signs must be posted, and they are not at Alta Vista.

But Assistant City Attorney Randi Audio said the company may be able to side-step the law because they have contracts with their tenets.

It seems the only option residents have if they don't like the new booting policy is to move.