June 1, 2010
OWNER OF TOWING FIRM IN FRANKLIN LOVES TO RIDE DOWN
MEMORY LANE
By MARY ANN BOURBEAU
STAFF WRITER
FRANKLIN TOWNSHIP - Pete DiGiovanni is proud of the 1939 International paddy
wagon that he and his brother Mark have restored to its original condition.
It's the same car that Pete DiGiovanni once rode in as a kid when New Brunswick police
picked him up for playing hooky from St. Peter's High School.
"The police would ride around and throw five or six of us in the back," said the 82-yearold. "They used to throw us in there like cattle. Then they would take us back to school. I
begged them not to tell my parents. I knew my father would do more to me than the
police would."
DiGiovanni found the paddy wagon - a van-type vehicle used during the arrest of
multiple people - behind the former New Brunswick Police headquarters, on the banks of
the Raritan River where, having been subject to flood waters over the years, it sat rusted
out. He and his brother found a similar vehicle in Minnesota that they bought to use for
parts as they spent countless dollars and hours rebuilding the motor, remodeling the
interior and painting it the original color green. He refers to Mark as a "genius' when it
comes to restoring vehicles to their original splendor.
"We never kept track of how much it cost," he said. "It was a lot."
After high school and a stint in the Army, DiGiovanni started working with his father
Frank at Guaranteed Motor Towing Co., which his father started in 1926 as an auto repair
shop. Along with his son Mark, Pete DiGiovanni still works there today, on call seven
days a week, 24 hours a day, at the ready to tow a wreck. He sits in the garage with his
cats Stubby and One Spot, waiting for the phone to ring. DiGiovanni said that he still gets
five to 10 calls a day.
"What would I do if I didn't work?" said DiGiovanni. "Sit down and wait to die? This
keeps me going."
DiGiovanni claims he has never taken a vacation, not even for his honeymoon in 1950.
"We started out for Niagara Falls and we got as far as Clinton when we turned around
and went home," he said. "I felt I had to be here."
On his desk in the Somerset Street business is a mounted hood ornament from a 1923
Cadillac, which served as the company's first tow truck.
"Back then, there was no such thing as tow trucks," he said. "You had to make your own.
My father altered the rear, installed a boom and a hand-crank winch. That's what started
Guaranteed Motor Towing Service."
Over the years, Guaranteed Motors has responded to countless accidents all over the
state, getting as many as 40 calls a day at one point because the company owned
equipment large enough to do the big jobs, such as uprighting tractor-trailers. DiGiovanni
spent a lot of time responding to wrecks as far west as Easton, Pa. before Route 78 had
been built, and on the New Jersey Turnpike, from Exit 1 all the way to the George
Washington Bridge.
"The Turnpike wasn't open an hour when he had our first job," he said. "They knew we
had the big equipment. Before all this new stuff, we were the ones that had to cut people
out of the cars."
Back in 1942, Frank DiGiovanni was also a subdealer for Ford automobiles and sold a
1942 Ford two-door Deluxe to Franklin Township for $550. It was used as the township's
first police car. Pete DiGiovanni bought it in the 1950s from former Police Chief Russell
Pfeiffer and it sat at Guaranteed Motors until the 1990s, when Pete and his brother Mark
decided to restore it to its original condition. They installed new upholstery, an original
siren and light, and painted it exactly as it appeared when it was new.
The car is now used for police events, parades and other special occasions in Franklin. It
was most recently brought out on May 10 for the Police Unity Tour, which kicked off in
Franklin this year in honor of the 50th anniversary of the deaths of officers George
Dunham and John Lebed, the only two officers in Franklin killed in the line of duty.
Dunham's widow, Elizabeth Dunham Vetter, rode in the restored police car with her
grandson to lead off the event.
DiGiovanni still recalls the events of July 10, 1960, the day the officers were killed.
"I was the one who towed the police car after they were killed in Highland Park," he said.
DiGiovanni has kept scrapbooks containing newspaper articles from many of the larger
accidents he has responded to. But his work hasn't been just about crashes. For 10 years,
he also worked for Greyhound, towing antique buses around the country for use on movie
sets. He has photos of himself with stars he met, including Jessica Lange, Ed Harris and
June Lockhart.
"Greyhound saw that we had the equipment to move the buses, which were
irreplaceable," he said. "It was something else."
Mary Ann Bourbeau: 732-565-7245; mbourbeau@MyCentralJersey.com
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