Where did city put your car and why? Chicago relocates 17,000 cars for street work in past year, but finding out where can take time

The Chicago Tribune reports on that corrupt town, Chicago:

Margaret Schriver walked to her usual parking spot near her Uptown apartment on a recent morning, but her car was nowhere to be found. Frantically, she called the towing company listed on a nearby sign. Nothing. She tried Chicago police and the city's 311 information line, but both agencies had no information about her car. She figured then that thieves were to blame.

"I had to call my job and take the day off because I thought my car was stolen," Schriver said. "I got my insurance (company) involved and everything."

But a week later, police called her with good news: Her car had been found. The city had "relocated" it to a parking spot near Montrose Beach, a mile away, because People's Gas was doing work on her street.

Schriver's car was one of more than 17,000 vehicles relocated by the city last year. For many reasons, the city moves vehicles at any time of day, often with little or no notice, and afterward makes no attempt to contact the cars' owners. Instead the city relies on owners to check the city's website or call 311 to find out if their vehicles have been moved. But because of a lag in logging the cars, some owners complained that when they did call, the city couldn't find their vehicles right away.

What other institution in society could get away with this??