Kershaw County Vehicle Impound Guide

Insurance and registration papers almost always end up locked inside the very car sitting in an impound lot, which creates its own small crisis at pickup. Tow yards require proof of both before releasing a vehicle, so asking the lot to provide an administrative escort back to the car to retrieve the documents is a normal, expected step, not a special favor. That's on top of the license paradox: a DUI arrestee's own license is typically confiscated on the spot, so a second person holding a valid license has to be the one who physically drives the vehicle away.

There's no central impound lot in Kershaw County. The Sheriff's Office, Camden Police, and Highway Patrol all pull from the same rotation list, and companies like Wateree Trailer & Supply and Camden Towing handle much of the volume. Because there's no public database of who has what, families need the exact time and location of the arrest to get anywhere with dispatch; the tow slip from the arresting officer, the county's central communications line, or the detention center's booking desk are all valid starting points.

Timing a visit matters more than it should. Private tow yards often advertise hours until 5 p.m., but the administrative clerk who processes releases and runs the credit card machine frequently steps away for an unadvertised lunch break around noon, or leaves before the posted closing time entirely. Arriving at 4:45 p.m. hoping to beat the gate is a real gamble that regularly ends with another day's $40 storage fee. Calling ahead to confirm the clerk is actually at the desk avoids the wasted trip.

State regulation sets hard caps on what any rotation company can charge: $251 for a standard Class A tow with $40 a day storage, scaling up to $511 and $66 a day for heavier Class C vehicles. Special recovery work, like winching a car out after a collision, runs $150 an hour but has to be billed in 30-minute increments, not rounded up to a full hour for a ten-minute job. Auditing the itemized invoice against that schedule, and reporting a deviation to the Highway Patrol Troop commander, is legitimate recourse against an inflated bill.