It doesn’t matter if you’re a regular customer at Key Food, Aladdin Cleaners or Burger King, if you’re parking in their lots, you have to be shopping at their stores.

Right now.

That’s the message from the owner of a towing company that Riverdalians say has been hoisting their cars unfairly.

“Nothing we do is illegal. We’re just removing cars that are not allowed to be there,” said Salvador Collazo, whose Onpoint Auto Works patrols they Key Food lot on Johnson Avenue and the Burger King lot on Broadway.

Mr. Collazo’s company offers towing contracts to private property owners free of charge, but the rate charged to a person whose car gets towed all the way to Onpoint’s Hunts Point lot can be as much as $150.

Calls to the company that owns the Key Food parking lot, Dyckmans, were not returned by press time.

Riverdale resident Blake Schiller found himself wheeling and dealing to get his wheels back after an Onpoint tow truck operator hoisted his car on Jan. 18. Mr. Schiller said he parked his car in the Key Food parking lot before bringing his kids to dental and haircutting appointments. Not long after entering the Riverdale Johnson Barber Shop, Mr. Schiller said someone came in asking for the owner of a gray Honda.

“This young guy has my car on top of his tow truck, he says ‘I’m towing your car, you’re not a customer.’ I said, ‘I spend thousands of dollars a year at Key Food and thousands of dollars a year at Aladdin,’” Mr. Schiller said. “He says, ‘You’re not a customer today, give me $136.’”

Not wanting to pay $136 for a vehicle that hadn’t even been driven out of the lot, Mr. Schiller said he attempted to take the car down himself.

“As soon as I touch the truck, just touch it, the guy grabs me and pushes me,” Mr. Schiller said.

The conflict was eventually resolved when the tow truck operator called his boss and Mr. Schiller agreed to pay $49.

Mr. Schiller got a deal. Mr. Collazo said he usually charges $75 to take a car off his truck and others said it can be much more.