Ellis County Vehicle Impound Guide

A vehicle towed after a Midlothian Police Department arrest can't be picked up at the storage lot at all, no matter what paperwork shows up with it. D&W Towing & Recovery, the county's primary storage operator, will flatly refuse release on a Midlothian tow until the owner first visits the Midlothian PD Records Division in person, shows proof of ownership, pays any municipal fees, and walks out with an official Tow Release document. Only then does the trip to the actual storage yard even make sense, and the records office keeps standard business hours, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. weekdays, with an after-hours callbox as the only other option.

The 12-hour math that actually saves money

Storage bills by calendar day, with one real exception: a vehicle held across two calendar days but for less than 12 total hours only gets billed for one day. A car towed at 11:30 p.m. Friday and picked up by 11 a.m. Saturday, 11.5 hours, owes a single day's storage. Wait until noon Saturday, 12.5 hours, and the bill jumps to two full days. The difference is one hour and one full storage charge, which makes early retrieval worth prioritizing over almost anything else on the list.

Only the actual owner gets the car

If the car belongs to a friend or family member rather than the driver, the driver being released from jail changes nothing about who can retrieve it. The registered owner has to show up in person with a valid photo ID and proof of ownership, an unendorsed title or a current registration card with a paid tax receipt. If they can't come in person, a notarized power of attorney or the state's VSF-013 form lets someone else take legal possession on their behalf.

The insurance bluff

Local agencies frequently tell families a vehicle can't be released without proof of insurance, and that's usually not true. A storage facility can't legally require an insurance card as a condition of releasing a car to its proven owner once fees are paid. The one exception is a police-placed hold specifically for an insurance violation tied to the arrest, in which case the insurance documentation has to go to the police records division to get the release form, not to the tow yard itself.

Challenging the tow

An owner who believes the tow lacked probable cause can request a hearing at the Justice of the Peace court covering the precinct where the vehicle was removed, within 14 calendar days (up to 21 in some precincts), for a $20 filing fee. A favorable ruling can recover the towing and storage costs entirely.