It was a pricey weekend for Richard Coston. He parked his truck cab in Northwest Baltimore on Friday night and the next day discovered that it was missing.

"I knew it had been towed," he said. Coston went to the city impound lot on Pulaski Highway yesterday, resigned to shelling out $752 to get his property back.

"They didn't even give a warning," he said. "They just came, and it was gone. There are no 'no parking' signs there. They just came and took it."

The cab was one of 38 commercial vehicles towed over the weekend in a citywide sweep to crack down on illegally parked trucks.

There have been about 1,400 complaints of commercial vehicles parked on residential areas, said Sterling Clifford, a spokesman for the city, and the periodic crackdowns are one way that the city addresses the problem.

David Brown, a spokesman for the city Department of Transportation, said commercial vehicles are not allowed to park in residential areas for more than an hour. In commercial areas, the law allows trucks to park from 7 a.m. until 1 a.m., but overnight the trucks must be on private property, he said.

Some of those ticketed said they believe that they were improperly ensnared in the city's sweep.

Chuck Wymer said that his U-Haul truck is not a commercial vehicle and was legally parked.

"If he feels it is not a commercial vehicle ... that is one of those instances where he can challenge it in court," Brown said.

Anthony Panichas said that his Chevrolet van was towed from the front of a rowhouse that he was rehabbing in East Baltimore. Panichas said that he has a permit to work on the house, adding that the towing company, Auto Barn, caused about $3,000 worth of damage to his truck when it was towed. The owner of Auto Barn could not be reached yesterday evening for comment.

"I understand the city if they have rules," Panichas said. "But I am working to make this city better. I fix these houses up."

Brown said Panichas would be able to park his commercial van in the neighborhood only for one hour at a time.

Panichas responded: "Basically what it boils down to is, I need to be a construction worker with a Volkswagen Rabbit."

annie.linskey@baltsun.com