Las Animas County Vehicle Impound Guide

A tow ordered off a rural stretch of Highway 160 in Las Animas County can rack up hours of billable transit before the vehicle even reaches a Trinidad lot. That's a direct consequence of the county's size — at 4,775 square miles, it's the largest county in Colorado by land area — and state rules let tow operators charge $286.15 per hour, per truck, for vehicles under 10,000 pounds. An arrest on the outer edge of the county can mean several hours of that rate stacked up before storage fees even start.

Don't head to the impound lot before confirming the vehicle isn't under a law enforcement hold. After a DUI arrest, cars are routinely held pending evidentiary review, and the tow company has no legal ability to release one under an active hold no matter who shows up asking. Call the arresting agency first — the Trinidad Police Department or the Las Animas County Sheriff's Office — to confirm the hold is cleared and find out which lot actually has the car, since a rotational dispatch system spreads tows across multiple operators depending on where the stop happened.

Two of the secondary operators are M & M Repair and Towing (1901 N Linden Ave, Trinidad, 719-846-8546), which runs 24/7 for dispatch but keeps standard release hours Monday through Friday, 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., and JM Tire and Towing (709 N Commercial St, Trinidad, 719-846-7273). The primary lot, A-1 Automatics & Towing, is reachable at 719-846-6193 and is open Monday through Friday 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., Saturday until noon, closed Sunday.

Reaching into the car for anything beyond a short list of protected items triggers an administrative fee of up to $100 an hour. The protected list is specific: prescription medication, medical equipment, child restraint systems, ID, a phone, and cash or a card if it's going straight to the tow bill. Anything else — a jacket, a laptop, tools — starts the clock on that hourly rate. State PUC rules back this up directly, so it's worth stating plainly at the counter rather than assuming the fee applies to everything inside.

There's no legal requirement that a tow operator offer a payment plan for a law-enforcement-ordered tow. Full payment is expected at the point of release, and daily storage adds on top of the hourly transit and recovery bill the longer the car sits.

One narrow exception: A-1 Automatics & Towing has previously run a promotion waiving the first five miles of a tow if the vehicle needs mechanical repair at their shop afterward. It rarely applies to a standard DUI impound, since the car is usually mechanically sound, but it's worth asking about if the arrest coincided with a collision or breakdown.