Effingham County Vehicle Impound Guide

When a deputy orders your car towed after a DUI arrest, they can search it first without a warrant. It's called an inventory search, officially just a catalog of what's in the vehicle to protect the tow company against theft claims. But anything illegal that turns up, drugs, an open container, a gun you weren't allowed to have, gets seized and becomes a fresh set of charges stacked on the DUI, sometimes at the felony level. If you're standing there while they do it, you are not required to explain anything in the car.

Effingham County has no central impound lot. The Sheriff's Office and Rincon Police use a rotating list of approved private wrecker companies, so your car is wherever the company that was on call took it.

Finding the car

Call the Effingham County Sheriff's Office non-emergency records division at 912-754-3449. Give them the arrested person's name and the Case Report Number from the arrest paperwork, and they can tell you which wrecker was dispatched. Skip this step and you'll burn hours calling tow companies at random.

Three companies on the county rotation: Rahn's Towing Services at 3470 Ga Hwy 21 S in Rincon (912-826-5585), Gil & Son Towing & Recovery at 219 Stag Rd in Springfield (912-754-3884), and CLT Towing & Transport, which works the Rincon and Pooler corridor.

What the state caps

Under DPS Maximum Rate Tariff No. 5, the base tow of a passenger vehicle is capped at $175. Storage is capped at $46.35 a day, and none of it can be charged for the first 24 hours, counted from the moment the car left the arrest scene. After-hours release carries a gate fee capped at $50. An administrative fee, also capped at $50, can only be added after 72 hours of storage.

Two rules cut the other way on weekend tows. No storage fee is allowed for any day the lot was closed and you couldn't legally retrieve the car. So a vehicle towed Friday night and sitting behind a padlocked gate until Monday should not rack up weekend storage. Read the itemized invoice line by line and dispute anything that violates these caps.

Getting it released

The officer took the driver's license at the arrest, so the person who was arrested cannot legally drive the car off the lot. The registered owner needs a valid government ID and current proof of insurance. If the registered owner is the person whose license was seized, they have to bring a second, fully licensed driver to actually drive it away.

Disputing the tow

To challenge the tow itself or stop a lien foreclosure on an unclaimed car, file an affidavit in the Effingham County Magistrate Court at 700 N Pine Street, Suite 250, Springfield. The filing fee is $10.