Talk about a weekend from hell.

Darrell Sapp, Post-Gazette Burton Nord talks about his experiences with city bureaucracy after getting carjacked in Shadyside Click photo for larger image.

It began when Burton Nord was carjacked at gunpoint outside his Shadyside residence Saturday night.

And it ended Sunday evening when Nord paid $145, under protest, to get his car out of the city auto pound in Lawrenceville after getting into an argument with police there.

In between, city police made three quick arrests and recovered his 2003 Toyota Avalon in the Hill District.

The undamaged car was taken to the tow pound after it was processed for evidence by the city auto theft squad. At that point, Nord learned that, even as a crime victim, he couldn't claim his car unless he produced $145.

"A robber took all my money. Luckily, he didn't take my wallet or the car would still be there," fumed Nord, who paid the tow pound fee with a credit card and was so angry that he threatened to sue the city for harassment.

City officials said the only way Nord could have gotten the car out of the pound without paying the fee was to get special permission from Police Chief Robert W. McNeilly Jr.

Nord said no one told him about that option, which would have meant that the car couldn't have been claimed until yesterday.

Yesterday, Nord, 60, said he felt like a man who had been victimized twice -- once by the assailants who put a gun to his head, and once by the police who didn't tell him where his car was until it was at the auto pound and wouldn't let him retrieve it unless he paid a towing fee.

He believes police purposely took the car to the pound so he would have to pay the large fee to retrieve it.

"If that is the way they want to treat victims, then I am getting out of here," said Nord, who has lived in the city for about two years with his girlfriend, who didn't want to be identified. Nord is vowing to return to the suburbs. He most recently lived in Aspinwall.

Nord now has to go to a hearing in Traffic Court to try to get his $145 back.

Sgt. George DeVault, who oversees the city tow pound, said a carjacked car is treated like a stolen car.

"Once it gets to the pound, there will be a charge," said DeVault, explaining that the towing contractor has to be paid. "The only way the car can be released [without paying a fee] is through the chief of police."

Events unfolded on Saturday night when Nord and his girlfriend returned to her townhouse off Ellsworth Avenue about 10:40 p.m., after an evening out. She got out of the car to see why her dog was barking. Nord was still sitting in his car when a man approached and pointed a gun at his head.

"He said, 'Give me your keys and your money, step out of the car and stand over there so you don't get hurt,' " said Nord.

Nord obeyed and gave the man the keys to his car and $100. He was shaken, but not injured.

Within an hour, two city officers saw the car parked in a lot at Milliones Middle School on Centre Avenue. They arrested the three men who were inside the vehicle: Michael Johnson, 19, and Marvin Carver, 23, both of the Hill District, and Robert Lee Peterson, 18, of St. Clair Village.

A short time later, police picked up Nord, and took him to Centre Avenue, where he identified his car and the suspects. Police took him back to his residence in the middle of the night.

He said they gave him a phone number, which turned out to be the Hill District station's, and said he could either call then or wait for a call from the officers who were due back on duty at 4 p.m. Sunday.

He waited until 4 p.m. and called the Hill District station, only to be told that the officers weren't there and weren't expected until about 7 p.m.

He checked again at about 7 p.m. and got a message that the car was ready to be picked up anytime at the city tow pound on 31st Street.

When he got there about 9:30 p.m., Nord was not in a good mood. It didn't improve when tow pound supervisor Phyllis Durret told him that he would have to pay the towing fee. When Nord went out to the lot to find his car, the keys were in the ignition and he threatened to drive away.

"I was a little out of line, I agree," Nord said. "I was tired and upset and I was saying that this is totally ridiculous. I was going to drive it away. She said I couldn't do that and she called 911."

Four officers from the Hill District showed up and smoothed over the situation, telling Nord that Durret was just following city policy.

"My issue is that the responding officers never gave me the choice of saying, would you like AAA to take it somewhere," Nord said. He has AAA coverage, which would have provided free towing.

He found the city's towing fee to be steep. A customer service representative at the AAA said that for $78, a member can get four free tows (of three miles or less) per year.

Police spokeswoman Tammy Ewin said the general policy is that once police recover a car and finish processing it, they usually notify the owner and give him one hour to get it before it is taken to the tow pound.

She said that policy was put in place after police were criticized in the past for not protecting autos from being stolen again.

In cases where cars are carjacked, she said, police usually hold the car until they process it for fingerprints and "then the chief usually releases the car to the owner."

She said Nord could have gotten his car released from the pound at no charge if he would have waited until yesterday, when McNeilly could have granted the permission to release it without a fee. Nord said no one told him that was an option.

Cars left in the tow pound are usually assessed storage fees. DeVault said those fees are $9 a day for each of the first three days and $18 a day starting on day four.