Elementary school teachers Sandra and Todd Hazlett, of West Deer, said they have learned a lesson.

Jason Watkins, whose towing company illegally towed the Hazletts' white 2005 Chevrolet Suburban, said he has learned a lesson.

And Del Monte Foods has learned that a city permit is required before hiring a towing company to remove unauthorized vehicles from two of its parking lots on the North Side. The permits cost $121 a year and are valid from Nov. 1 through Oct. 31.

Because there was no permit, the Hazletts -- and everyone else who has been towed from the Del Monte lots since Nov. 20 -- are owed refunds for the $150 towing fees they paid to Jay's Towing Co. to recover their vehicles.

"I'll refund the money," Mr. Watkins said.

He said he has the year, make, model, color and license plate of every vehicle he has removed from the lots bordered by River Avenue and Warfield, Progress and Chesbro streets and divided by Saw Mill Way. The lots are near the 16th Street Bridge, a 1.2-mile walk from Heinz Field.

The Hazletts, who have five children, treated themselves to a night out Nov. 20 to watch the Steelers defeat the Cincinnati Bengels, 27-10. They parked in the larger of the two Del Monte lots.

They said they didn't notice the signs saying the lots are for Del Monte employees and visitors and that "all others will be towed at owner's expense."

The signs are posted at the entrances to both lots and on light standards in the lots. I counted six signs in the lot where they parked. One sign has the name and phone number of Jay's Towing Co.

When the Hazletts returned to the lot after the game, they and other fans were upset to find their cars missing. Mrs. Hazlett, 42, a kindergarten teacher in the Deer Lakes School District, said it was then that they noticed one of the don't-park-here signs. She and her husband, 37, a sixth-grade teacher in Deer Lakes, waited for a ride to their car.

It was provided by an employee of Jay's Towing, a man whose name they didn't get but whose attitude they did. After waiting until he took other drivers to their cars, the tow truck operator drove them to a nearby ATM so they could withdraw the $150 in cash he said they needed to rescue their car.

"He didn't identify himself and was very rude," Mrs. Hazlett said. "He refused to give us a receipt and refused to tell us where we were. When I called 911, the dispatcher wanted our location and I couldn't provide it. I gave him my cell phone number for the police, but no one ever called me back.

"My husband and I made it through this ordeal very scared and intimidated," she said. "It was midnight and we were in the city with no choice but to do what these men told us to do so we could have our vehicle back and get out of the city safely.

"My husband and I never would have parked there if we thought we were in the wrong."

Mr. Watkins, who owns Jay's Towing, said he didn't know Del Monte had to obtain a permit from the city's Bureau of Building Inspection before his company could tow cars from the lots. "We've only been towing cars from there this fall," he said.

"Ignorance of the law is no excuse," said Mary Fleming, deputy chief of the Bureau of Building Inspection.

Mrs. Fleming summoned Mr. Watkins and Robert Casile, of Del Monte Foods, to her office at 9 a.m. yesterday.

"Del Monte paid for a permit for one of the two lots you called me about. It is going to close the other one. I found out it didn't have a permit for its lot next to its building on the other side of the 16th Street Bridge. So they got a permit for that lot, too."

Mr. Watkins said Del Monte security told him that fliers had been placed on the windshields of the vehicles of unauthorized parkers when the Steelers' season began to warn them not to park there. He said security called him Nov. 20, said unauthorized vehicles were in the lots and told him to tow them.

"And that's what I did."

The Hazletts were pleased to hear they'll be getting their money back.

Their advice to fans of the Steelers and Pirates: "Watch where you park."