Feb 25, 2026
It took seven years, a class-action lawsuit and millions in taxpayer dollars — all because the city of Chicago took a wheelchair-accessible van and sold it for scrap parts without warning its owner first.
Andrea Santiago, a 75-year-old Chicago woman living with multiple sclerosis, has finally won her legal battle against the city after her wheelchair-accessible van was towed from her Jefferson Park neighborhood in June 2018 under the city's abandoned vehicle program.
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Her family says they never received advance notice. When they tracked down the van at the city's impound lot on Sacramento Boulevard, they were told it had already been sold for scrap. And the city pocketed just $15, according to CBS News Chicago (1).
"We thought the van was stolen," Santiago's daughter Lisandra Velez told CBS. "It was her lifeline. It's like her legs."
Chicago's City Council recently approved a settlement resolving the case — and the terms tell a striking story about how one woman's refusal to back down forced the city to rethink how it treats vehicle owners.
The financial impact at a glance
When the van was taken, the family lost a vehicle they say was worth an estimated $15,000, equipped with a $10,000 hydraulic wheelchair lift. The city's haul from that seizure: $15.
Santiago originally asked the city to simply reimburse her, which was refused. Her attorney, Jacie Zolna, then filed a class-action lawsuit, and what might have been a quiet reimbursement became a multimillion-dollar legal saga.
The final bill for Chicago taxpayers now tops $3 million, with $1.6 million paying for legal fees of the city's private law firms, according to CBS News Chicago (1). Santiago herself will receive $16,500 toward a new van.
The roughly 5,000 class members — vehicle owners towed without proper notification since 2017 — can submit claims for either $1,250 if their vehicle was scrapped or a refund of impound fees paid, WTTW News reported (2).
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"They towed the wrong lady's van," Zolna said, "because she was a fighter” (1).
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How Chicago's abandoned vehicle program failed
Under city rules, any vehicle left on a public street for more than seven days can be flagged and towed, even if it's legally parked and in working order, Zolna told CBS (1).
According to a statement from the Chicago Department of Streets & Sanitation to CBS in 2018, the city was supposed to place a seven-day notice on the vehicle and send a second pre-tow notice via certified mail to owners with valid registration before removal (3). Santiago's case hinged on the city skipping that step.
Her van was regularly parked near her home because she couldn't drive and depended on Velez for transportation. Santiago told CBS that no pre-tow notice arrived by mail. And no disposal notice arrived either — something Illinois law requires before a city can sell an impounded vehicle for scrap.
As part of the settlement, Chicago must now notify vehicle owners by mail before towing any vehicle flagged as abandoned, Zolna told CBS (1). That policy change is arguably the case's most consequential outcome.
How other big cities handle towing
Cities without strong towing protections risk costly litigation, public backlash and financial liability. Chicago's court-ordered reform brings it closer to consumer protections already adopted elsewhere, sometimes also under legal pressure.
This and other cases highlight how municipal practices around abandoned vehicles can disproportionately impact vulnerable residents.
In San Francisco, a 2021 lawsuit by the Coalition on Homelessness pressured the city's Municipal Transportation Agency to change its practice of towing legally parked vehicles solely because the owner had accumulated five or more unpaid parking tickets (4).
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The group was successful in its case when the California Court of Appeal found the city's towing practice violated the California Constitution.
New York City caps arterial towing fees at $125 for the first 10 miles (and $5 for each additional mile) for abandoned passenger vehicles and higher rates for heavier vehicles, per city traffic rules (5). But those protections don't extend to the rest of New York State, where towing fees remain largely uncapped. Pending state legislation would change that by establishing comparable rate ceilings statewide (6).
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What this means for drivers
A vehicle is often a household's most significant asset. For people with disabilities, it can mean the difference between independence and isolation, or even getting the health care they need.
Losing your vehicle without notice, and then spending years in court to recover even a fraction of its value, is a risk that exists in any city without strong towing oversight.
Chicago's settlement is a reminder that legal challenges and public pressure can compel meaningful municipal reform.
Drivers concerned about their own exposure should look for protections that include mandatory pre-tow mailed notice, required disposal notification before a vehicle can be scrapped, caps on retrieval fees and hardship programs for low-income residents.
Article sources
We rely only on vetted sources and credible third-party reporting. For details, see our editorial ethics and guidelines.
CBS News Chicago (1), (3); WTTW News (2); Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights San Francisco (4); NYPD.org (5); New York State Senate (6)
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With a writing and editing career spanning over 13 years, Emma creates and refines content across a broad spectrum of industries, including personal finance, lifestyle, travel, health & wellness, real estate, beauty & fitness and B2B/SaaS/tech. Her versatility comes through contributions to high-profile clients like Moneywise, Healthline, Narcity and Bob Vila, producing content that informs and engages, along with helping book authors tell their stories.
