I think the point is that somebody can look at a brand new mint condition bugatti and say "that looks like it's worth less than $1500 to me" and then take it. It's not good to rely on people to be honest when it is in their financial best interest not to be.

But the law doesn’t allow for that, obviously. It’s a nonsensical scenario. Maybe you could argue that a somewhat functional car might be taken on occasion, but it’s… still abandoned…

Like, nobody is parking a useful vehicle on the side of the highway and abandoning it. This isn’t a scenario for abuse.

While it's a particularly brazen scenario meant to illustrate the concept, the point is the law does allow that. This doesn't simply apply to cars left on the side of the road, this is any car that's been towed for any reason. A car worth a heck of a lot more than $1500 can have an expired parking permit and no one available to pick it up (or even recognize it has been towed) within 15 days. You go on vacation or you're in the hospital and when you get back home you don't have a car anymore because you were parked only 13 feet away from a fire hydrant. And particularly for low income individuals, coming up with the money to pay the fine to get your vehicle out of impound within 15 days may be a legitimate financial burden, especially if without your vehicle you can no longer commute to work, or you lost your job for whatever reason led to the vehicle being impounded. It's an obvious scenario for abuse.