Impounded

Real Lessons in Leadership, Humanity, and Holding the Line

What can a former summer camp director learn at a city impound lot? More than you’d think. 

When Chris T. Rehs-Dupin traded cabins and campfires for tow trucks and ticket disputes, he entered one of the city’s loudest, most demanding, and least appreciated workplaces. What followed were three years filled with chaos, conflict, hard-earned lessons, and an unexpected amount of grace.

Impounded: Real Lessons in Leadership, Humanity, and Holding the Line is part memoir and part guide to people-centered leadership. Through stories of late-night customer confrontations, staff tensions, and day-to-day absurdities, Chris shares raw, funny, and deeply human experiences that always point back to a deeper lesson. Each chapter pairs real-world challenges with a “Human Code”—a counterpart to City Code—offering practical insights on leadership, trust, conflict, burnout, resilience, and staying human under pressure.

For anyone who has led a summer camp, managed a public service team, or tried to create community in difficult environments, Impounded shows that meaning can still emerge from messy systems. At its core, this is not a book about cars or municipal regulations. It’s a book about people—their struggles, their humor, and the hope that appears where you least expect it.