A Melbourne towing company is reviewing its practices after picking up a four-wheel-drive from a clearway with a three-year-old girl asleep on the backseat.

The vehicle had been parked for about 15 minutes on Sydney Road at Brunswick about 3:40pm last Wednesday.

Mark Beverage from Nationwide Towing and Transport said the vehicle had dark-tinted windows and the tow truck driver could not see the girl sleeping under a blanket.

He said the girl's distraught parents phoned police to report the vehicle as stolen and the tow truck driver was stopped on Mount Alexander Road at Ascot Vale.

"We've been doing clearways for 20 years, and never had anything like this before," Mr Beverage said.

Police said the girl slept through the whole drama.

Mr Beverage said despite the unusual nature of the situation, the company was looking at ways to avoid a repeat of the incident.

"Certainly we're looking at different ways and what we could do, because we obviously tow vans and things as well and we can't see inside those vans," he said.

"So we are reviewing to see if we can do anything better."

He said employees always check vehicles for people and animals before towing away.

"We don't know if they're secured or not in the back of the tow truck and that child could be climbing all through the car and we've got no control of that," he said.