Horry County Vehicle Impound Guide

Speak up before the handcuffs go on. South Carolina gives a driver the right to request a specific towing service, called an "Owner Request," and if the vehicle isn't a traffic hazard or evidence, the arresting officer generally has to honor it. That means calling an AAA membership or a trusted local mechanic and having the car towed to a home driveway or a preferred lot instead of landing wherever the county's rotation list sends it — a move that skips hundreds of dollars in storage fees and the entire headache of tracking the vehicle down afterward.

Without that request, a standard tow goes to whichever company is next on Horry County's wrecker rotation list, which shifts regularly among approved vendors. Inside Myrtle Beach's city limits, the police department instead works through a municipal towing franchise, typically Shoreline Towing or Strand Towing, at a baseline fee around $200. To find a vehicle towed by county police, call Horry County's non-emergency dispatch, which keeps a communications log of every county-directed tow; if the Highway Patrol made the arrest, contact SCHP Troop 5 headquarters directly instead.

A vehicle tied to a secondary charge, like a narcotics find, or one involved in a serious crash needing investigation, skips the private rotation entirely and goes to the Horry County Police Department's evidentiary lot at the M.L. Brown Public Safety Building in Conway. That lot only releases property on Tuesdays and Thursdays, 8 a.m. to 4 p.m., by appointment — call ahead for pre-approval, because a car seized on a Friday evening isn't coming out before the following Tuesday at the earliest. There's a second catch at that facility specifically: retrieving anything requires a criminal records check on whoever shows up. Anyone with an open bench warrant or unresolved civil process should stay away in person and instead send a representative with a notarized authorization, since walking in personally can turn into an arrest of their own.

Contesting a tow's legality or fees means filing with the Horry County Magistrate Court within 30 days of notification, for a $25 filing fee. State regulation caps standard wrecker rates at a $272 flat tow fee and $47 a day in storage.