A tow truck driver said she was not injured when gunshots were fired as she was hooking up a car in Lauderhill on Wednesday.
Lauderhill Police said they responded to a call of shots fired at the tow truck driver at 2700 Northwest 52nd Ave., in the Palm Vista neighborhood.
Blanche Marie Duncan said she was in the process of hooking up a green Acura to her black tow truck when she heard about five shots being fired. She said someone in the building across from her in Royal Oaks yelled as a shot was fired and said "Drop the F-ing car."
"And all of a sudden I got on the phone right away and called 911 because he shot the gun towards our way. And all of a sudden I heard about three to four more shots," said Duncan, who is the owner of Johnson Towing.
She said they came "Boom boom boom. You could even smell the smoke from the firearm from where we were."
No one was hit by the bullets, police said.
Johnson and the mother of the car's owner, Tony Douglas, agreed that he did not fire the shots.
The mother screamed at Johnson as she finally towed away the car later, however.
"You messed the car up Ms. Johnson!" yelled the woman, who did not give her name.
Police said that no one is in custody. They were interviewing everyone who was present at the time.
Duncan said she is contracted by the neighborhood association in Palm Vista and was called to remove the car there because of a missing tag. She was working with a partner when the incident occurred.
Douglas said the license plate was stolen.
"Somebody maybe took it off," he said.
The alleged shooter was said to have fled into a nearby apartment at 5231 Northwest 27th St., but police said they didn't find bullet casings nearby, weapons or someone fitting the shooter's description at that location. Neighbors said the whole thing was blown out of proportion.
"This is ridiculous, it was a misunderstanding," one said.
But Duncan insisted it was another example of the danger tow truck drivers face. She said she's been hurt on the job before. And just last week, in Lauderdale Lakes, police arrested Triston Johnson for allegedly shooting and killing tow truck driver David Herr as he was getting ready to tow Johnson's car.
"It's scary, and you're only doing your job, and no one deserves to get killed over a (raggedy) car," she said.
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Photo Credit: NBC 6 South Florida