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NYC Tow Check

✓ Published0🌍 Public
Aakre54
Last edited Sep 27, 2021
Created on Sep 27, 2021

NYC Tow Check is a server-side monitoring tool that periodically queries the NYC towing department’s website to determine if a specific vehicle has been towed. It uses Puppeteer to automate a browser, solves the site’s ReCAPTCHA via 2Captcha, submits a license plate, and checks the result page for the phrase “The NYPD towed the vehicle.” If found, it sends an SMS notification through AWS SNS. The system runs as an AWS Lambda function using chrome-aws-lambda, with a Dockerfile provided for local development.

AI-generated description

NYC Tow Check

  • Did my car get towed in NYC (again?) *

I was getting tired of finding my vehicle missing and not knowing if it was stolen or towed, or even worse needing it and then having to wait hours (or a day if Sunday) to get it back out.

Since the towing department doesn't have an API, I figured I'd make my own alerter. This scrapes the NYC towing website, using puppeteer and the service 2Captcha to solve the ReCAPTCHA on the home page, and then sending a text if it's found.

It doesn't help with the huge towing fines but at least I'll know where my car is.

Running

Create a .env file with an API key from 2Captcha, the license plate of your vehicle, and a SMS to text when the vehicle has been found.

API_KEY_2CAPTCHA=ASDF-134
AWS_REGION=us-east-1
LICENSE_PLATE=ABC123
TOPIC_ARN=arn:aws:sns:us-east-1:123456789012:vehicle-towed-sms
PHONE_NUMBER=+12125550213

This uses some Lambda-specific code, but should run on EC2, gcloud, etc. with minor modifications. Make sure to set the timeout higher because it can take a while for 2Captcha to solve the image sometimes.

MIT Licensed

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