Las Vegas NowI-Team: Booting Battle Cranks Up

I-Team: Booting Battle Cranks Up

LAS VEGAS -- Paul Draher knows it is just another day as one of the most reviled men in Las Vegas.

"It's a job like anyone else," he says, sighing lightly, knowing news crews and papers are against him. He does not feel put upon, exactly. He knows it comes with the territory.

When you boot someone's car, they tend not to like you -- at all. "Usually I'll have a bullet-proof vest on just as a precaution," he says without a hint of sarcasm or irony.

Draher is the owner of Boot-It Inc., the local company raising eyebrows and question marks about the tactics of booting cars. His battleground is the parking lot near Harmon and Paradise, a popular mass of spaces across from the Hard Rock. Proximity is the problem, however. People park in the lot and then walk across the street to other businesses.

Boot-It has caught a batch of criticism lately for aggressively telling booted owners that in order to get out of hock, they must pay $200 in cash on the spot.

"The sings are posted, clearly posted, now we're going to need $200 to remove the boot," Draher explains. Because the lot is private property, Boot-It's actions are civil matters. Draher says the $200 on the spot fee is still nearly $100 cheaper than a tow.

As owner, Draher says personal responsibility is critical to parking. It may not seem like much, but many Las Vegas drivers feel entitled and deserving of the right to park wherever they please. Rules are rules. "If it wasn't us, it would be somebody else," Draher says.

Jim Sams really does not care who does the job. To him, the tactics are inexcusable. "It's a scam. It's a scam to make money," the videographer said.

Sams turned the cameras on Boot-It in October in a guerrilla-style YouTube video. Friends had been booted and he wanted the cash-only transactions to come to an end. He calls it extortion.

"I can't believe that could be happening here in Las Vegas. That just doesn't happen. We're not in Tijuana," Sams said.

Draher saw the video and admits the company can do more to be more courteous during transactions. He also wants to take away the fire of critics by toying with the idea of a credit card machine. He says the machine charges a lot per swipe, so it has been cost-prohibitive up until now. Draher will not allow checks, though, because of a high number of stopped payments. "That's the first thing I would do," he says.

Boot-It will install larger signs in the lot, hoping more people heed the red letter warning, but as long as people want to walk across the street and get away with it, the most hated man in Vegas will continue his patrols, bullet-proof vest and all.