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Is it embarrassing to have your tow truck towed? I see them causing distress every day but I rarely see tow trucks themselves in distress.

I was busy drinking in the wisdom of the Web, along with a medium coffee, when I noticed a tow truck across from me on West Broadway. At first I thought it was blocking westbound traffic so it could tow a parked car -- but the owner of the car drove it away and the tow truck stayed and stayed and stayed -- all it's yellow lights flashing -- furious inactivity.  The police came, talked with the driver, and left, and traffic fitfully flowed around the obstacle it created.

The tow truck driver eventually got out and stood on the road beside the truck, then stood on the sidewalk, then in the alley -- clearly cooling his heels until help arrived. A big Unitow truck -- the kind that hauls away transit buses -- passed the comparatively tiny tow truck without so much as a honk.