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City of Pittsburgh launches abandoned vehicle blitz

PITTSBURGH — Pittsburgh police have started the process of clearing abandoned cars from city streets.

The initiative kicked off Tuesday in four neighborhoods: Allentown, Beltzhoover, Carrick and Knoxville.

According to police, a total of 116 complaints to the city’s 3-1-1 system were investigated which resulted in the following actions:

- 17 vehicles towed

- 15 registered letters that will be sent for vehicles that met the criteria for towing as abandoned, but not more than 90 days expired, which can be towed immediately

- 84 complaints cleared either because the vehicle had already been removed, or was legally registered

Neighbors like Yvonne Barnikel are glad to see the effort underway.

“I worry about the children. There’s a lot of children in the neighborhood. It’s not nice to look at it. It just brings the whole neighborhood down,” she said.

Yvonne’s husband said while he can appreciate that in some cases there’s a legitimate backstory for a car being left on a street, it’s not fair that it becomes someone else’s problem.

“I think sometimes people get stuck. They don’t do it intentionally, but there is a responsibility. We have to clean up our act you know, it does mess up neighborhoods,” said Jim Barnikel.

Police are identifying the next target neighborhoods for abandoned vehicles, with another removal blitz tentatively planned for mid-May.