How to get your car out of impound in Melrose Park
If your car got towed in Melrose Park, here is how to find it and get it back today.
What Illinois law says
Chicago is unusual in one important way: a car that is gone has not necessarily been impounded. The city also relocates vehicles to clear streets for agency work, and it says plainly that this can happen in an emergency with no opportunity to post signs. Its own advice is to call 311 before reporting the vehicle stolen. If it was impounded by the city, it is at one of four auto pounds, all open 24 hours a day, 365 days a year: Central at 500 E Wacker Dr on the lower level, the O'Hare pound on Bessie Coleman Drive, Pound 2 at 103rd and Doty Avenue, and Pound 6 at 701 N Sacramento Avenue. If a suburb towed it, none of that applies, because every village runs its own impound with its own fee. Work out which of the three situations you are in first, because they have almost nothing in common.
How it works in Melrose Park
- 1 Call 311 before you drive anywhere
The city relocates vehicles as well as impounding them, sometimes with no signs posted, and 311 will tell you which pound has it or whether it was moved instead. This is the city's own instruction and it saves a wasted trip.
- 2 Ask whether police are holding it
Vehicles held for narcotics, DUI, firearms, fleeing and eluding, a suspended or revoked licence and a long list of similar reasons cannot be released at the pound at all. Those go through the Vehicle Impoundment Office at 400 W Superior.
- 3 Bring the right documents
Valid photo identification for everyone claiming the vehicle, proof of ownership as a valid title, a current registration card or a bill of sale not more than 30 days old, a lease agreement if you are the lessee, and an original notarized letter from the owner if you are acting for them.
- 4 Check plates, sticker and fines
No vehicle is released without current state plates and a Chicago Vehicle Sticker where required, and all charges and fines have to be paid in full. If you are driving it out, you need a current valid driver's licence.
- 5 Know how they take payment
Cash, Visa, Mastercard, Discover, American Express or Diners Club. No checks and no money orders. The tow is $250 under 8,000 pounds or $350 at or above, with storage at $50 or $100 a day.
- 6 Watch the clock
Vehicles are normally stored no less than 21 days from the date the city mails notice to the registered owner, and under 9-92-100(a) you have a right to one extension of 15 days. Request it from the Auto Pound Office at 312.746.4954.
What this looks like around Melrose Park
Oak Park, Cicero, Berwyn, Melrose Park, Schiller Park, Elmhurst, Naperville, Aurora and Elgin each run their own impound. If the vehicle came out of a shopping-centre or apartment lot rather than off the street, it is a relocation under state law instead, performed by a company licensed by the Illinois Commerce Commission, and that is a different process again.
Melrose Park runs its own impound. Around the hospital campus the distinction that matters most is whether the tow was a village impound or a private-property relocation, because that decides which rules and which phone numbers apply to you. A suburban impound is not the City of Chicago pound and does not use Chicago's published rates. Illinois law (625 ILCS 5/11-208.7) requires a municipal administrative fee to be reasonable and related to the municipality's actual administrative and processing costs, and it sets no dollar cap, which is why these figures vary so widely from village to village. What it does guarantee is procedure: notice within 10 days, an initial hearing convened no later than 45 days after that notice is mailed, and a refund of administrative fees if the hearing officer finds the vehicle was stolen or hijacked at the time it was impounded. Call the department that ordered the tow and ask for its administrative fee and daily storage rate.
Melrose Park holds 24,796 residents with a median household income of $53,596. North Avenue, Illinois Route 64, runs through the middle of the village, joined by Mannheim Road, Broadway and 17th Avenue, and the Melrose Park station provides daily Metra service on the Union Pacific West Line. Gottlieb Memorial Hospital is the major institution. The village carries a large industrial and warehouse base, and North Avenue and Mannheim between them are two of the busiest truck-carrying arterials in the near west suburbs, which changes the equipment mix: box trucks, straight trucks and delivery vans show up in the call log far more often than the population would suggest. Hospital-area parking enforcement adds its own steady, unglamorous volume, and a hospital is one of the places where the difference between a village impound and a private-property relocation matters most to the person standing in the lot, because it decides which set of rules and which set of phone numbers applies to them. Operators cover North Avenue, Mannheim Road, the hospital campus and the warehouse district.
Common Melrose Park questions
How do I find out where my car was towed in Melrose Park?
Call 311. Inside the city that tells you which of the four pounds has the vehicle, or whether it was relocated rather than impounded, which is a real and common outcome the city warns about itself. If a suburb towed it, call that village's police department directly.
What will I owe to get my car out of impound in Melrose Park?
If the City of Chicago towed it, the published fees are $250 to tow a vehicle under 8,000 pounds and $350 at 8,000 pounds or more, with storage at $50 or $100 per day on the same split, under Municipal Code 9-92-080. If a suburb towed it, that village sets its own administrative fee and it will not match the city's.
Can I pay with a check in Melrose Park?
Not at a City of Chicago pound. The city takes cash, Visa, Mastercard, Discover, American Express or Diners Club, and it states plainly that checks and money orders are not accepted. Suburban impounds set their own payment rules, so ask before you drive over.
Can Quick Tow Chicago release my car from impound in Melrose Park?
No, and we will not pretend otherwise. We connect drivers with private tow and roadside operators. We are not the pound, the village or the police department holding your car, so we cannot waive fees or speed up a release. What we can do is help you work out who has it and line up an operator once it is released. Call (773) 830-6930.
Related help for Melrose Park
Impound release process in the rest of the West Suburbs area
Need your car towed once it's released in Melrose Park?
We can't waive the yard's fees. We can line up an operator the moment it clears.