Special Team’s Van Was Towed From Complex

It doesn’t lessen the sting or the disappointment, but the reported theft of a van that was to have carried a team of mentally retarded softball players to the Special Olympics in San Diego wasn’t a theft after all.

The van had been towed.

And to the relief of William Tebbs, who’s coached the Tri-Valley Allstars for three years, the van, which was packed with equipment, was not ransacked. The day before, Tebbs sadly told the team’s 11 members that they would not be able to rent another vehicle in time, leaving many of them in tears.

“What’s this city coming to?” Tebbs lamented to a reporter at the time.

But on Saturday night, Tebbs learned that the van was towed from his driveway at the Heartland Village condominiums at 4:30 a.m.

According to a dispatcher at Black & White Tow of Pacoima, a security guard at Heartland Village had called in the complaint. She could not say why the van was considered a problem at the Sylmar complex. The van was hauled away just an hour before the team was to head off for San Diego.

“It was never stolen,” said Sgt. Frank Reynoso, watch commander at the Los Angeles Police Department’s Foothill Division station.

“He just parked it in the wrong place and the property owners had it towed away,” Reynoso said.

Tebbs, who is staying with friends at the Sylmar complex, didn’t think the driveway was the wrong place to park.

Before he reported it stolen, Tebbs said he called Tony’s Club Service, a Pacoima tow yard under contract to Heartland Village, but was told that no vans had been towed late Friday night or early Saturday morning. He also called the property management office and was assured that it had not been towed.

Just why Black & White towed the van remains unclear. Budget Rent-a-Car officials are expected to pick up the rented van on Monday.

“I think it’s a stupid mistake and a lot of people are involved in it, but I made the initial mistake,” Tebbs said.

After Tebbs announced to the team members and their families that the rental van had been stolen, William Holliday Jr., the father of one of the players, alerted the media.

“He’s the one who got all pumped up about it,” Tebbs said.

When Holliday was told Sunday that the van had not been stolen, he struggled to find words.

“It wasn’t . . . you’re kidding . . . you’re kidding . . . whew!” he said. “It was towed from Bill’s house, huh? What does Bill say about that?”

Tebbs plans to apologize to the team and explain that “I parked in the wrong place and got it towed away.”