Junk car removal in Lake Station, the city once called East Gary
Can you remove a junk car from a mobile home park in Lake Station?
Yes. Cash For Junk Cars Junk My Car Inc picks up junk cars in Lake Station mobile home parks, driveways and side streets, and the tow is free. Let the park office know a truck is coming. Once the car is loaded you're paid at pickup by Zelle, Cash App, cash or another digital payment.
Tell us the car, get a cash offer
We'll call within 15 minutes.
Request Received!
We'll call within 15 minutes.
- Free towing
- Paid at pickup: Zelle, Cash App or cash
- Offers don't expire
- Any car, any condition
Or call (708) 719-9909, 6:30 a.m. to 10 p.m., every day
One home in ten is a mobile home
Lake Station’s housing is unlike its neighbours’. Mobile homes make up 10.0% of housing units here, against 0.2 to 1.5% in Hobart, Griffith and Merrillville. So the car may well be inside a park. That works fine: clear it with the park office, tell us the lot number, and the driver goes straight to it. Most other homes are single-unit houses (82.8%), and only 3.8% are in buildings of five or more units.
The city’s code is strict about where a car may sit. No vehicle of any kind may be parked or stored in a front yard or on a sidewalk (§ 8-76(a)(1)), and a car may use the parkway only if it is parked parallel to the road. Parking on the street to show a car for sale or to repair it is barred outside emergencies (§ 8-68). A car that has died on the lawn is already breaking the first rule, and it is one more reason to have it gone.
Where our map ends
Lake Station touches Gary on the west, through the Miller Beach neighbourhood, and Hobart to the south. New Chicago, the small town that also touches Lake Station, is covered too. Merrillville lies beyond Hobart, and Griffith on the far side of Gary. Portage, on the east, is where we stop, along with the rest of Porter County. The Indiana towns we serve are listed on the coverage page.
East Gary, the Deep River and the rail lines
The city answered to East Gary from 1908 until 1977, when it took back the older name. That name dates to 1851, when the Michigan Central Railroad opened a depot here, the first train station in Lake County. The west end takes in the old Liverpool settlement, once the county seat. The city sits on the Calumet Shoreline, a sand ridge, and the Deep River runs through it.
Rail still matters. The CSX Porter Subdivision, the busiest line through town, and the Chicago, Fort Wayne and Eastern both cross Lake Station, and the Fairview Walkway follows the old Michigan Central Joliet Line. Give us a cross street and the driver picks an approach that keeps clear of a waiting freight.
Ripley Street and the Toll Road
US 6 leaves the Borman at Ripley Street and runs south on Ripley with SR 51 through the city into Hobart. North of the Borman, SR 51 carries on to US 20 near the Gary line. Toll Road exit 21 is here too, where I-80 joins I-90 for the run to Ohio. Our trucks come in from Orland Hills on the Illinois side, so Lake Station is near the far end of the trip; an address and a cross street on the free quote form keep it simple.
When a parked car counts as abandoned
Chapter 8, Article 2 calls abandoned vehicles a public nuisance and a health and safety hazard (§ 8-110). Under § 8-111 a car counts as abandoned if it sits on public property unmoved for 3 days, on someone else’s private property for 48 hours without consent, or on public property with the engine, transmission or differential removed. On your own land, the test is a car 6 or more model years old, mechanically inoperable and visible from public property for 30 days or more. Licensed scrapyards, sales lots, service shops and registered antiques are exempt (§ 8-124).
The paperwork for a Lake Station sale
Lake Station follows Indiana’s statewide rule for junk cars. Before a recycler can buy one, the seller must produce the title, a duplicate title from the BMV, or a BMV certificate of authority, regardless of age. A car without a title can only be sold if it is 15 model years old or older and the seller holds that certificate of authority. With a newer car and neither paper, the buyer would be committing a Level 6 felony, so that is a sale we have to turn down. Let us know what you have and we’ll tell you on the call which route fits. The no-title guide covers it in more detail, and what goes into an offer is explained in a separate piece.
Year, make and model are enough to start an offer.
(708) 719-99096:30 a.m. to 10 p.m., every dayGet Instant OfferQuestions we hear in Lake Station
Is there a Lake Station snow rule I should worry about?
Not in the online code. Chapter 8, Article 3, set aside for vehicle rules during snow, is marked reserved with no sections in it. That copy is only codified through Ord. 2020-20 from September 2020, though, so a newer rule would not show there, and posted signs still apply. A dead car at the curb is simpler to load before the snow than after.
What happens once a city officer tags the car?
It can be removed 72 hours after the tag goes on (§ 8-114), and a car of very low value goes straight to a scrapyard. The owner is liable, up to the car's market value, for removal, storage and disposal costs (§ 8-112). Selling it to us before then means you get paid instead of billed, and our tow costs nothing.
Does it matter which side of the Borman the car is on?
Not for the offer or the free tow, but it helps the driver. The Borman has three Lake Station exits: 13 at Central Avenue (eastbound off and westbound on only), 15 at Ripley Street for US 6 and SR 51, and 16 where it ends at the Toll Road. Tell us which side the car is on and the nearest cross street.
Junk car in Lake Station? Send the details and we call you back.
(708) 719-99096:30 a.m. to 10 p.m., every dayGet Instant Offer