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The laws regarding tow companies in CA are very sketchy, and much of it is fuzzy and gray. You may not be able to determine anything.
A few years ago, a tow company took my wife's car (long story, won't bore you with every detail). I went to retrieve it, but they had a policy at that tow yard: They wouldn't release any car that did not have current registration stickers. Well... I had only purchased the car ONE week before, had ALL of the temporary registration, bill- of- sale, pink slip, every scrap of paperwork you can imagine... but no PERMANENT registration sticker (DMV said it would take a couple of months). The tow company told me that two months of storage charges would be worth more than the car's value, so I might as well just sign over the title to them.
I called the cops.... the cops told me that tow companies can make their own rules. If they make a rule that they can't release red cars, then that's the rule. If they say that they can't release cars on days that end in "Y," well, that's the rule. If they can't release cars unless the owner speaks Swahili and owns a goat farm with exactly 404 goats and a baby hippopotamus, well, then that's the rule.
(Luckily for me, I knew a cop who was able to personally call and threaten them with the hellfire of all the CHP if they did not release my car immediately... yes, it was a personal favor done for me, and not everybody has that special opportunity. Without that, I would have lost the car.)
Point being, the "rules" are made up by each tow company. There MIGHT be laws regulating what they can and can't do, but realistically, there is no law enforcement agency that will enforce them, and no way to get your vehicle--- or vehicles--- back, unless you pay whatever extortion charge the tow company says you have to pay. Damage to the vehicle MIGHT be recoverable in small claims court... but that's the only way.
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