Private Property Impound Inc., or PPI, which has a contract to tow cars from Discount City, had towed the couple’s Toyota Corolla, and when they arrived at PPI’s lot in East Oakland, it cost them $470 to retrieve their car. Over the years, the problem of people having their cars towed from private lots, often illegally, leaving many stranded and on the hook for hundreds, and sometimes thousands of dollars’ worth of fees has earned several names: bandit towing, pirate towing, and predatory towing.