Jim Wells County Vehicle Impound Guide

Jim Wells County spreads DWI tows across a rotating pool of private wrecker operators rather than one fixed municipal lot, so the first job after an arrest is finding out which one has your car. Call the arresting agency's dispatch line, either the Alice Police Department or the Jim Wells County Sheriff's Office, with the license plate or the driver's name, and they'll point you to the right lot.

Double R's Towing & Recovery, at 1877 West Front Street in Alice, handles the largest share of releases and keeps its release line open 24/7, with an after-hours gate fee permitted under state towing rules. It takes cash, check, and all major cards. Three other operators split the rest of the county's tows: Danny's Wrecker Service on Cecilia Street, STARR Towing & Recovery on South US Highway 281, and Juan's Wrecker and Truck Road Service, which dispatches out to Sarita, Riviera, and Falfurrias and requires an hour's notice before you show up.

Fees compound fast. State rules cap the administrative processing charge at $50 after the first 24 to 48 hours, and daily storage typically runs $20 to $22 under the state's statutory ceiling, though the exact rate a given lot charges isn't published. Storage also bills by the calendar day starting at midnight, so a car pulled at 11:59 p.m. costs a full day less than one pulled two minutes later. Get to the lot and finish paperwork well before 4 p.m. if you want to avoid an extra overnight charge.

Release offices generally keep business hours of 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., Monday through Friday, and the smaller operators tend to close for lunch around noon to 1 p.m. Calling ahead before you drive out saves a wasted trip.

Only the registered owner can retrieve the car, and having the keys isn't enough on its own. If the owner is in jail or out of the area, they need to sign a notarized Authorization of Release naming who can pick it up, which sometimes means arranging a mobile notary to visit the jail.

You can contest the tow itself. File within 14 days of the date it happened at any Jim Wells County Justice of the Peace court, for a $75 filing fee. Realistically, though, a DWI tow tied to a custodial arrest is hard to beat on probable-cause grounds, so for most people the faster and cheaper move is having someone pay the accrued fees and get the car out while the case is still pending.