Dozens of people who left their vehicles parked at a Walmart in Chattanooga while they went on a weekend casino trip got a swift turn of bad luck when they returned to find all their vehicles towed.
Monday we took a closer look at how this happened.
This happened at the Walmart Supercenter parking lot in Brainerd, off of Greenway Drive.
The group left their vehicles parked in the parking lot on Saturday, and discovered they all had been towed on Sunday evening.
Tracy Knox is one of almost 50 people who drove 30 cars to the Walmart parking lot.
He and others from the group do not understand, because he said using the permission of a Walmart employee, they had been parking overnight in the lot for more than 2 years.
Some Walmarts across the country do allow over night parking with permission.
However when we went to the Walmart parking lot in Brainerd we found a sign that says "no truck or overnight truck parking, unauthorized vehicles will be towed, and towing enforced at all times."
We took this story to the city to find out if cars are permitted to park over night at Walmart in Chattanooga.
A Chattanooga city spokesperson in Chattanooga told us
"Walmart is a private company and controls their own parking lot. Walmart Supercenter locations are generally open 24 hours per day, and we have no plans to regulate whether or not people can park there during any of those 24 hours."
Walmart’s website says this specific store in Brainerd closes at 11 p.m.
A Walmart spokesperson tells us “According to store policy, cars sitting for 24 hours will be towed. We have signs posted around the parking lot stating this policy.”
More than 20 vehicles were towed by American Tow & Recovery.
The towing company owner, Aaron Black tells us there was a no overnight parking sign at the Walmart and he was just doing his job.
This story will be updated as we learn more.