They’re cast off for whatever reason without notice or they just sit next door for days or weeks on end, not moving.

Some are hard to miss, out of water: A sailboat, about 35 feet long, was left abandoned in mid October on Monster Road Southwest on south Renton, still on its trailer but without a hull number or license plate there was no way to identify the owner.

The City of Renton impounds or seizes between 80 and 100 vehicles a year, most because they’ve been abandoned or not moved for 72 hours – or less likely seized as evidence in a crime. Some vehicles were stole, or in some way caught the notice of a neighborhood.

Through mid-November, the city has impounded 46 vehicles, not including those seized as evidence.

The number of abandoned-vehicle complaints is much greater than that, said Sgt. Kevin Keyes in the Renton Police Department Patrol Services Division. He sees roughly 60 to 80 such complaints a month.

Those complaints take investigating officers away from more serious calls, he said. Officers use the calls to educate the public about parking and abandoned-vehicle laws.

“I am not saying abandoned vehicles aren’t important,” Keyes said. “They are lower on our totem pole.”

Mike West, general manager for Gene Meyer Towing in Renton, which has a contract with the city to impound vehicles, said his drivers respond a lot of streets in front of apartment complexes.

An abandoned vehicle or boat (they’re the same under the law) is typically hauled away by a towing company, which will contact the registered owner to come get it out of lockup by paying the impound fee within a certain time period.

A towing company can auction a vehicle if it’s not claimed to recover its costs. If a vehicle doesn’t sell at auction, the company can seek to recover its costs through a collections agency.

The city will pay to have vehicles towed that have evidentiary value in a crime, Keyes said. So far this year, the city has spent about $12,000 on such impounds.

The city has parking laws that limit the time – 72 hours – a vehicle can remain in one spot without being moved. Once notified, the registered owner has 24 hours to move it. And, according to Keyes, the vehicle has to be moved to a different block, not moved just slightly.

A “frequently asked questions” feature on the City of Renton website  answers how parking enforcement officers know how long a vehicle has been parked on a city street or public right of way.

“It’s quite easy actually – they normally chalk a line on one of the vehicle’s tires, and then return to the location after the posted amount of time has elapsed. If the car is still there, an infraction is issued.”

All police officers enforce parking violations and the city has a parking enforcement scooter that patrols during the day.

Anyone can file a traffic or parking complaint, called a Neighborhood Traffic Request, online at the City of Renton website, rentonwa.gov. Search for Traffic Enforcement. Options also include calling 911 or the Renton Police Traffic Division at 425-430-7556.

The city maybe impounds two or three boats a year.

Gene Meyer Towing picked up the sailboat on Monster Road under its contract with the City of Renton. The boat was inspected by the state Department of Licensing, which couldn’t find any ownership documentation on the boat or trailer.

That meant that Gene Meyer Towing could get rid of it. Typically no one wants an abandoned boat or motor home, so the company will cut up the vehicles and haul the pieces away, said West, the general manager.

That’s what happened to the sailboat, at a cost to Gene Meyer.

“We are under contract to take the good with the bad,” West said.