Car Towed For Several Days, Was Not Reported At All. (va)

My car got towed over 5 days ago, I work from home, I do not drive much, so I only noticed when my roommate mentioned that my car was gone. I checked the public tow records for my city only to not see my car listed, luckily, I have a tracker hidden in my car, when I checked it, it seemed to be in some random lot of cars. I called my sheriffs office to report it stolen, but when I told the officer the location from my tracker, he mentioned that the address ringed a bell and after some time on hold he told me that as far as he new, that lot was owned by a towing company and that for some reason they did not report the towing to any records.

I learned about all of this tonight and haven’t been able to go pick up the car. But I’ve actually heard about this towing company before, the reputation is so bad that even the cop had some…colorful…words to say about them. I am expecting that they will attempt to get me to pay in full for the tow, and since it’s been almost 5 days, I imagine they are going to charge a TON of money.

What should I do? Should I refuse to pay? Should I pay and file a claim with the city to get it back? On top of the fact they towed me from my lot for aparrently no reason, they did not report it, and if I didn’t have a tracker in it, I would have had to file a police report and the police would have needed to investigate for me to even know I got towed in the first place.

Edit: just realized two things: the parking lot is for the shopping area I live above, but the sign on the lot is mentioned as parking that is reserved for the building, not the shopping area specifically. It’s also for anyone with a neighborhood parking permit to park overnight, I don’t have a permit, so I could see them thinking that I don’t have permit and thinking that I am not allowed to park there. But I have been parking there for almost a year with no issues.

Also, I just remembered that there is a sign on the lot that mentions a phone number to call if your car is towed, but I still feel that is not an excuse for the vehicle not being reported through the proper channels.