Last Thursday, my car broke down.

For whatever reason (ambient heat of the summer, a stupid radiator, not really stop-and-go traffic, etc.), my car very quickly overheated and crapped out on me; the engine would still run and I could turn the car on, but trying to put it into any other gear besides park shifted it into neutral. Very upset, I called my insurance people, trying to get a tow truck out to me. They told me to call 911, as I was trapped near an inner section and a traffic hazard. I called 911 and they finally got a tow truck out to me.

Then the tow truck driver charged me $204 to bring it three blocks. $175 for the towing, $24 for the dispatch, and then $5 per mile. He called it their "police fee", which they charge when the police call them in to do a job. $204 came out of my pocket when I was already low on cash and hoping my next paycheck would give me enough to pay off the class I had in the fall. Thankfully, the tow truck that got called out by the insurance company wouldn't charge us any more than the $150 coverage limit to take it to our preferred mechanic. The mechanic couldn't figure out what's wrong with it, by the way.

I finally managed to get a hold of the claims people at our insurance company and hopefully they will be able to pay me back all the money that I had to pay for following their instructions.