Larimer County Vehicle Impound Guide

Most law enforcement-ordered tows in Fort Collins and the surrounding area go to either Import Towing & Recovery or Shaun's Towing & Recovery, with the exact destination depending on which agency made the stop and where. Finding out which one holds a specific vehicle generally means calling whichever agency actually executed the arrest, since dispatch destinations shift based on where in the county the stop happened.

The single costliest detail in this entire process is timing: storage charges don't just accrue every 24 hours from the moment of impound, they tick up again at exactly midnight. That means an arrest late at night followed by a jail release the next morning can already be sitting on two full days of storage before anyone's even had a chance to retrieve the car — $48.19 to $59.45 a day depending on vehicle weight. The only real defense is retrieving the vehicle the same day as release from jail; waiting even one extra day compounds the bill for no benefit. Leave it unclaimed for 30 days total, and Colorado law treats the vehicle as abandoned — ownership is permanently forfeited at that point, full stop.

Getting the vehicle released at all requires lining up specific documentation. The registered owner has to show up with a valid, unexpired government photo ID that matches the name on the title exactly — someone else showing up with cash doesn't work regardless of their relationship to the owner. If the DUI stop also involved a lack-of-insurance charge, which happens often, valid insurance verification has to be presented before release too. And if the registration itself is missing or expired, a trip to the Larimer County Vehicle Licensing office comes first — they'll only accept a printed registration generated within the last seven days, meaning an outdated printout from months ago won't satisfy the tow yard either.

Import Towing markets 24/7 towing and dispatch, but the actual release office only staffs administrative releases Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Trying to retrieve a vehicle outside that window, including any weekend attempt, triggers a state-regulated After-Hours Release Fee currently capped at $106.06 — on top of whatever else is already owed.

One rule worth knowing specifically because it doesn't apply here: Colorado requires private-property tow operators to accept a 15% deposit (capped at $60) plus a signed debt acknowledgment from anyone who can't pay the full bill up front. That protection is written for private-property impounds, not law enforcement-ordered DUI tows, so it can't be relied on to reduce an upfront payment in this specific situation. What does carry over regardless of impound type is the absolute right to retrieve personal belongings from inside the vehicle on demand, independent of whether the towing bill has been paid at all.