Dockless scooter giants Bird and Lime are suing two San Diego businessmen for impounding thousands of their electronic bikes and scooters, then holding the property hostage until a “ransom” was paid.

The local towing company, Scooter Removal, was founded earlier this year by entrepreneurs Dan Borelli and John Heinkel. The two say they were responding to constant complaints from business owners and neighbors frustrated that electric scooters and e-bikes were crowding into privately owned spaces. The towing company allows people to call and request a pickup, sign a tow authorization on the spot, and Scooter Removal will remove the items for free, later charging the scooter companies to get their property back.

“We don’t want them gone,” Heinkel told the Union-Tribune in February. “We just want a check and balance.”

But Bird and Lime allege the towing company is breaking the law in order to profit from the tech companies. Among several allegations, the two companies say Scooter Removal is violating California vehicle code, interfering with personal property and committing civil theft.


“In an attempt to improperly capitalize on Lime’s service to the San Diego community, defendants have developed an unlawful scheme of illegally impounding bikes and e-scooters ... and demanding ransom for their return,” Lime’s complaint reads.

Borelli said Scooter Removal and related parties are denying all allegations and plan to countersue. The local company is represented by Neil Dymott Attorneys, a downtown firm also involved in a separate legal action against dockless companies for endangering people with disabilities on city sidewalks.



Bird and Lime’s allegations

Although Bird and Lime filed two separate legal actions against Scooter Removal, the complaints are strikingly similar and were filed one day apart.

According to the legal documents, Scooter Removal has 2,500 Bird scooters locked away in a warehouse and is demanding “tens of thousands of dollars” for their return. The company said it already paid $40,000 to the towing company in November 2018 to retrieve 1,800 of its scooters.

In Lime’s complaint, the company said Scooter Removal has 1,300 scooters and 285 bikes in locked storage, demanding $50,000 from Lime for their return.


Through the lawsuit, Lime is hoping the court will stop Scooter Removal’s actions through injunctive relief, along with awarding Lime compensation to cover legal fees and other damages. Bird is asking for the return of its property, an award of “four times the towing and storage fees defendants have charged Bird,” along with an award to Bird of “any profits” made by Scooter Removal due to “their unlawful business.”

A Bird spokesperson said San Diego residents are “being bamboozled” by Scooter Removal and “robbing people of the environmentally friendly scooter options they’ve come to rely upon each day to get to and from work, as well as to local businesses.”

Lime declined to comment.

Both scooter companies have features on their apps that allow people to report improperly parked scooters and bikes.



Scooter Removal’s response

Borelli said the claims made by Bird and Lime are “false and very inaccurate.”


He said the billion-dollar tech giants were out of line, putting their business on other people’s property without permission.

“They litter and make property owners liable for injury lawsuits like the city now faces from scooter trips and falls,” Borelli said.

One allegation against Scooter Removal is that the company didn’t adequately inform Bird and Lime of each impounded scooter individually, as required by vehicle law. Instead, the towing company sent batch emails notifying the company of several impounded scooters at once.

Borelli said the towing company is a “small mom and pop shop trying to remove these nuisances with signed agent agreements on behalf of owners, notifying companies before, during and after removal.”


“They want to bully us to shut us down and use private property without recourse,” he said.

Borelli said Scooter Removal is still operating and plans on expanding soon.

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