LMPD impound lot to offer second amnesty week

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WAVE) - For the second time this year, car owners can get their vehicle out of Louisville’s impound lot for free.

LMPD said 700 cars are eligible to be picked up next week during this latest amnesty period.

The amnesty was created to help manage the space in the impound lot. It had gotten so full, abandoned cars littered the streets.

89 cars were taken out of impound for free in January during the last impound amnesty week.

Normally, the city releases 50 cars on average each week.

The lot is no longer bursting at its seams and LMPD hopes to keep it that way.

Drive Louisville’s streets long enough and you’ll find abandoned cars, if you look for the right clues. Look for flat tires, long expired license plates, maybe a decomposing skull to mark the passage of time.

“We don’t like looking at it either every day,” said Dan Galvin.

Ok, so the skull is clearly a joke. But the plant growing through a Volkswagen pickup truck is not.

“It’s been here since about last September, so it has been here a year plus,” said Galvin.

Some abandoned cars are obvious. A rear ended sedan we found is a mess. LMPD said it gets around 20 complaints a month to pick up abandoned cars.

Major Emily McKinley said they’re clearing the backlog of tows every day.

“In the past three months, there’s been 280 abandoned vehicles towed from our streets, about 185 of those on surface streets and another hundred or so on the interstates,” said McKinley.

The tow lot has 1,300 cars in it, and LMPD said 700 can be released right now. If all 700 cars were removed owners would save at least a combined $105,700 in impound fees.

“We want to remove these cars and clear more space out of our lot so we take more abandoned vehicles off of our street and improve our community,” said McKinley.

LMPD said it will be able to do that without opening a temporary tow lot in Shively that was strongly opposed by neighbors. It contracted instead with IAA to store vehicles in Shepherdsville when needed. Now if it could get just rid of that Volkswagen.

“It’s been a little bit slow going but I certainly understand that with the situation they’re coming out of,” said Galvin.

Owners will need to bring certain information to pick up their cars for free.

The tow lot operates from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. Monday through Friday.

Owners will need to bring a state issued photo id, proof of insurance, car registration or notarized statement from owner giving permission to the person picking up the car. The statement also needs to include the make, model, color, and VIN.

The driver will also need a valid drivers license.

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