Boxed In at Figueroa and Alondra: 200 Cars Impounded
Two hundred cars impounded from one spot. The part that sticks isn’t just the number. It’s waking up the next day and figuring out how you’re getting to work without your car.
Before daylight on September 5, the takeover at Figueroa and Alondra in Harbor Gateway got boxed in. Two weeks later, there’s more to talk about than the moment the lights came on: the footage, the tow-yard bill, and how quickly everyone in the crowd got turned into the same story.
Watch: KTLA 5 / Chris Wolfe — the scene report and police response. This package also includes footage identified as a previous South LA takeover.
When the spot got boxed in
An attendee interviewed by ABC7 put it plainly: “the cops came deep.” They described trying to leave and finding streets and alleys blocked. That account lands differently from a headline about a crowd scattering.
According to FOX 11’s reporting from inside the operation, police meant to contain the gathering. Sending everyone to another spot wasn’t the plan. That explains the buses and the line of tow trucks.
And if you pulled up to watch, 442 is the number that matters: police said that many citations were for spectating. Another 128 were juvenile curfew citations. The fallout reached well beyond whoever was sliding.
OnScene’s report described parents waiting outside the perimeter while officers processed people and removed cars for hours. By then, the night was about finding your people and working out who was going home.
The part that keeps costing
A car on a flatbed is one thing. A car sitting in a yard while the storage bill climbs is another. If that’s your daily, you’re also dealing with shifts, classes, rides and everyone asking when you’re getting it back.
CBS LA reporter Jeff Nguyen visited a yard holding more than 60 cars from the operation. His report described a 30-day hold and a cash total above $2,500: a towing fee starting at $215, $66 a day for storage, a $6.60 daily city storage tax, and a $115 administrative fee.
Watch: CBS LA / Jeff Nguyen — tow-yard reporting begins around 0:29. The package also includes older surveillance footage and figures that differ from FOX 11’s reported police totals above.
That still leaves the individual stories. Who got a car released early? Who is challenging the impound? Who’s borrowing rides while the bill grows? The reporting reviewed here doesn’t establish what every owner paid or whether every vehicle stayed the full 30 days.
The reel lives longer than the night
The story kept moving on Instagram after the trucks left. TPS Motorsports posted a reel on September 6 with a caption blaming sideshows for damaging car culture. When checked on September 20, Instagram displayed roughly 58,700 likes and 5,000 comments on it.
Instagram: @tpsmotorsports — embedded as part of the online reaction. Street News has not independently confirmed the original camera source or the date of every shot in this reel.
That’s the other life of a clip. Someone watches the cars; someone else sees a reason to write off everyone who was there. The caption gets to set the argument before the people in the video get a word.
You can care about the scene and still want the details straight. A driver, a passenger and someone filming from the edge don’t automatically have the same story. Neither do 200 impounded cars. A comment section can’t tell us what evidence police had for each one.
What happens to the cars now?
Residents interviewed by ABC7 described repeated disruption and damage around their homes. Their side belongs in this too. Reporting from the scene means hearing the people who live at the spot as well as the people who pulled up.
Two weeks on, another recap of the numbers only gets us so far. The follow-up worth reading is about cars being released, cases moving forward or getting dropped, and owners explaining what this actually cost them.
Two hundred impounds made the headline. What happened to those cars—and the people who rely on them—is the story we want next.
Were you there, or did you get your car back? Tell us in the comments what happened after the footage ended. Dates and paperwork help us check the details; leave personal information out.
Reporting and video credits
FOX 11 — Andres Gutierrez: police totals and reporting from inside the operation.
ABC7 — Madison Weil and Jericho Tran: attendee and resident interviews.
OnScene.TV — Hugo P: reporting from Figueroa and Alondra.
KTLA 5 — Chris Wolfe: embedded scene report.
CBS LA — Jeff Nguyen: embedded report on impound costs and neighborhood accounts.
TPS Motorsports on Instagram: embedded social post and reaction, credited separately from verified event reporting.
Street News • Reporting and commentary • Updated September 20, 2026. This article covers the September 5 Harbor Gateway car takeover.
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