But nobody touched the Mustang.
When I arrived home later that afternoon, my wife was waiting in the kitchen.
She looked exhausted.
"They actually tried to take it."
I nodded.
"I saw."
She placed a copy of the paperwork on the table.
"The driver left this with the officer."
I examined it.
The document described the Mustang as an abandoned or unauthorized vehicle subject to removal under association rules.
It also referred to the disputed expanded service area.
Near the bottom was a signature authorizing the towing company to act for the association.
The HOA president's signature.
I stared at it.
She was still relying on the very authority that my attorney had formally challenged.
And she'd now attempted to use that claim to remove a vehicle from property the association didn't govern.
My wife looked toward me.
"How much further is this going to go?"
I didn't answer immediately.
Then I said, "Hopefully not much further."
But I wasn't optimistic.
The president had been given several opportunities to stop.
Each time, she'd chosen to escalate.
And that decision was creating a much larger record than she'd ever intended.
The independent investigators interviewed the tow driver the following week.
He provided the work order, the communications he'd received, and the paperwork supplied by the association. He also explained why he refused to remove the Mustang after reviewing the circumstances.
His account revealed something important.
The towing company that originally received the request was owned by the HOA president's son.
But the company did not have the necessary equipment available that morning, so it had contacted another operator to perform the removal.
The second driver hadn't been told that the property owner disputed the association's authority.
He hadn't been told about the earlier incident involving the president's son.
And he hadn't been told that legal counsel had questioned whether the parcel was subject to HOA restrictions at all.
He had been given a work order describing the vehicle as unauthorized.
When he arrived and saw the car in a private driveway beside an occupied home, he became uncomfortable.
Then he asked for proof of authority.
The documents didn't satisfy him.
His decision to stop the tow mattered.
Not because he knew I was the sheriff.
He didn't.