Property and the car
These are two different desks with two different sets of paperwork, and treating them as one is how people spend a week getting neither. What was on the person at booking is at the jail. The car was towed by whoever made the arrest.
Do not go to the jail for the car. Jails do not hold vehicles. The arresting agency — a city police department, a Sheriff’s station, or the CHP — ordered the tow and controls the release.
The two systems
Path one
What was in their pockets
Held at the jail they are in now
- Confirm which jail and get the booking number.
- The person inside signs a property withdrawal slip authorising release to a named person. Nobody can collect without it.
- That named person brings photo ID to that jail.
- Call the facility first — property window hours are not published centrally.
If they have been moved to another jail, the property may have moved too. Confirm where they are being held before travelling.
Path two
The vehicle
Held at a tow yard, controlled by the arresting agency
- Find out who made the arrest — city police, a Sheriff’s station, or the CHP.
- Ask that agency whether it is stored or impounded, which yard has it, and whether a 30-day or evidence hold applies.
- Get the release from the agency. Only then does the yard hand it over.
- Pay the yard. Storage is billed daily, so the delay is the expensive part.
Do not ring round tow yards first. Without the agency’s release, the yard cannot help you even if you find the right one.
Keys and a phone sit on the fault line. If they were taken at booking, they are a jail question. If they were left in the car, they are a tow-yard question. Ask which before you drive anywhere — and see the caution below about what the jail actually publishes.
At the jail
Four things, a signed slip, and ID.
This is the Sheriff’s published list of what can be picked up or dropped off. It is short, and it is the whole list.
- Clothing
- Money
- Prescription medication
- Legal documents
Keys, a phone and a wallet are not on that list. Legal websites often say the same slip covers them. The Sheriff does not publish that, and we are not going to confirm it for you. Ask the facility whether they can go on the slip — do not drive out assuming it.
Prescription medication here is property, dropped off or collected. That is a different thing from getting a medication history to the jail’s clinicians, which is done by fax to a different department. Medication and mental-health information →
Call the facility holding them
Not on the inmate locator yet? A recent booking can take hours to appear, and until Sheriff booking is done both the property and the car may still be at the arresting agency’s station. Try 909-350-2476, the countywide public information line.
The vehicle
Stored or impounded decides everything.
The words are not interchangeable, and which one applies determines whether you can simply go and collect the car.
Stored
The registered owner or their agent can normally collect it directly from the tow company. The CHP gives collisions, a vehicle left on the freeway, and a car blocking a lane as examples.
Impounded
The tow company will not release it until the agency that ordered the impound says so. Typical reasons are no valid licence, no valid registration, or the vehicle being held for investigation or evidence.
A 30-day hold
Vehicle Code § 14602.6 allows a 30-calendar-day hold where the driver was unlicensed, suspended or revoked. Any early release is the agency’s decision, not the yard’s, and it is not automatic.
Who to ask, in order
-
The agency that made the arrest
A city police department if it happened in a city with its own force; a Sheriff’s station in the contract cities and unincorporated areas. Find the agency for that town →
-
Sheriff dispatch, if a Sheriff unit towed it
Valley 909-387-8313 · Desert 760-956-5001
-
CHP Inland Division, if it was a freeway stop
909-806-2400 — 847 East Brier Drive, San Bernardino, CA 92408
Still in the car
Your things in an impounded car are not the yard’s to keep.
A tow operator cannot put a lien on personal property. The CHP is explicit: all personal property shall be released on demand to the registered owner or agent, without charge, during normal business hours.
Unaffixed property means what it sounds like. Papers, a mobile phone, portable radios or stereos, clothes, luggage, tools — the contents rather than the car.
On the Sheriff’s rotation, written approval comes first. A tow operator needs written Sheriff approval before removing property from a stored or impounded vehicle, and with that approval releases it to the owner or their agent on request.
An evidence or investigation hold is the hard stop. That approval requirement cannot be waived when a vehicle is held for evidence or investigation. Until the agency releases it, nothing comes out.
After hours may cost you. There is no charge during normal business hours; a fee is allowed outside them and must be disclosed if you ask.
One city, as an example
Every agency sets its own counter, hours and fee.
There is no countywide release process and no countywide fee. San Bernardino Police Department publishes its own, which is useful as a picture of what gets asked for — and useless as a guide to what Ontario, Fontana or Rialto will want.
What SBPD asks for
- Current vehicle registration, or a DMV one-day moving permit
- Current proof of insurance
- A valid driver licence for the registered owner
- If the owner has no valid licence: their ID plus the licences of two people who will collect and drive it
- If the owner cannot attend: a signed, notarised authorisation naming the person collecting
Where and when
Traffic window, in person, Monday to Thursday 9am–4pm, excluding holidays. Card only — Visa, MasterCard or a debit card carrying those logos. Cash and cheques are not accepted.
Fridays are by phone on 909-998-3240, option 2, 9am–4pm.
To contest an impound, or ask about early release of a 30-day hold: 909-384-5742 during business hours.
SBPD states there is no city release fee for a recovered stolen vehicle, or where an arrestee is released under Penal Code § 849(b). A city release fee applies otherwise; the amount is set by the city and changes, so check the department’s own page rather than trusting a figure printed anywhere else.
Do not carry these details to another city. Hours, payment methods and fees are San Bernardino’s alone, verified 21 August 2026. Every other department runs its own records or traffic desk.