On one side of the Gilroy Garlic Farm Travel Center, hundreds of truckers from all over the country fill 150-gallon tanks with diesel at $2.63 a gallon, while locals and travelers pay a bargain $2.53 for regular gas.
On the other side of this south end gas station, motel and convenience store, homeless people hang out at picnic tables smoking cigarettes and eating meals from three nearby fast food restaurants. Tour buses unload dozens of people to use the restrooms, while drug dealers and prostitutes attract customers on a staircase in back of the building.
You may casually pass by the Travel Center at 5920 Travel Park Circle every day when you’re in a time crunch to get to work, or, when you’re frantically trying to run all your errands. It’s located just off the Monterey Street exit from Highway 101. The building has a Togo’s, a Baskin-Robbins, showers, a gym and massage room, as well as a convenience store that sells necessities, alcohol and Gilroy garlic products.
The reviews on Google border on comedy and are not the kind of image the tourist bureau would be proud of:
“Been coming here for years only because not a lot truck parking in the area,” wrote driver Alicja Zuber last month. “Last year some son of a ***** stole fuel from my truck. Called 911, talked to staff inside the truck stop. No one cared!! I stopped coming here for year. Last night (unfortunately) had to park here again, so I parked in the upper section of the truck stop, which I previously done it many times. Around 10 p.m. some guy came around, dressed like a cop, told everyone to leave and that this isn’t the truck stop!!! He was taking pictures of each license plate. Unreal!! Where do you go to park at this hour? In this area?? I asked him where is the sign informing us about no parking. No answer! I strongly recommend to avoid this place. It’s not safe!”
This Denmark tourist was so frustrated he called police: “We went in here to sleep and was told by one employee that the room had 2 queen sized beds. When we had paid and came to the room there where only one bed. And as we were 2 adult and 2 teenagers we asked them to give us our money back so that we could go find another room somewhere else. They would not pay me back and said they had no other rooms available. As a tourist from Denmark i thought i had only one option – to call the Police to get some kind of help. They came within 2 minutes in 2 Police cars (Wauw – that was fast).
After they had talked with the staff – they suddenly had a room with two queen sized beds which we then got.
On top of that the rooms where without comparison the most disgusting and dirty we have ever slept in – in a Motel in America.
All in all we can NOT recommend this place to anyone.”
Added Chanel Banks: “Well the place is dirty and run down. There is bums and addicts lurking around. But it’s a 24-hour spot. Can have visitors and It’s cheap. No Wifi!!”
And Anthony Saraj: “If you’re looking for a hotel room where a homeless dirty shemale on meth just got murdered, you found the place!”
Cayla Penner wrote a year ago: “Stopped at the gas station beneath and literally just witnessed two people snorting cocaine in broad daylight on the tables out front and the nasty bathrooms had a needle on the ground. I didn’t stay in the actual rooms—but I wouldn’t even feel safe to make it upstairs.”
Jeng Sai gave it one star and a scathing review: “Asked if room had 2 beds was told yes, turned out only one bed. Room was filthy, hallway and stairs are dirty. Should have called police as Denmark tourist did. Everything either didn’t work or not work properly. All hangers are gone, towel missing, light bulb missing, bed sheet didn’t tuck in, blanket sheet missing, electric outlet not working, air conditioning blowing foul air, window only open a slit. This place should be rented by the hour.”
Yelp user Andrea W. of San Jose was more positive, giving it 3.5 stars. “Not a bad hotel actually, much better than what I thought it would be. It’s weird to be between two gas stations, but the hotel itself was very comfortable. There was a microwave, a refrigerator, a TV; the bathroom was all connected so nobody could use the sink while someone else used the toilet/shower, but that’s okay. It wasn’t super clean but it was passable. There was also internet! Such a random place to have internet, I couldn’t believe it. It was slow sometimes, but it did work. Not a bad price too—one bed $74 per night.”
A trucker who declined to give his name was a little less positive: “The ice cream is good, but it’s a dump. All I can tell you is that all truck stops have their own personalities.”
And this particular truck stop raises some eyebrows and a good deal of police activity.
Police have been called to the Garlic Farm Inn 29 times and to the Garlic Farm RV Park 89 times between Jan. 1, 2015 and Sept. 19, 2016. The calls were for a range of things, including three contacts with sex offenders and people management didn’t want there.
Officers say it’s not out of line with calls for service at local apartment complexes, such as the 60-unit Sobrato Apartments, which had 106 calls for service in the same time period and the 80-unit Orchard Apartments, which had 197.
A man who worked as a security guard across the street said he felt threatened by the constant flow of drugs, vagrants and prostitutes at the hotel and truck stop.
“This hotel right here, prostitutes, drugs, cops come by, they see them doing it, they just keep on going, said the guard, who gave only his first name, Dan. He has since left the location after arguments with truckers and police. “If you want to see, come out here at night, people on bikes, backpacks—those are the runners, the ones with the drugs.”
Dan said he spent a Friday night at the hotel and women knocked on his door every half-hour asking if he wanted company. “Not from you,” he said he told them.
Donna Hernandez, who manages the Garlic Farm RV Park which borders the truck stop, said there is a rampant problem with transients, drug usage, and prostitution in the park. “I actually have a stack of needles in the back of the office right now.”
Hernandez said the police, when called, were not doing anything to address the problems going on within the property. “I would call—I had the prostitutes coming over—and the police would never get here. Never get here.”
Gilroy Police Sgt. Jason Smith disputed that and has the calls for service to prove it.
“Whenever we get calls for service we respond to every one,” he said. “Some calls take priority over others. If we have specific information we can act on, we do. If we have general information, we do the best we can. If someone says there are prostitutes in the parking lot, but no description, it’s very difficult to follow up. It’s like if someone says they are doing drugs in a house, we can’t just knock down the door. We have to do an investigation. The more specific the details, the better chance we have to act on a complaint.”
Two Dispatch reporters observed very specific drug deals in the parking lot and watched as people went into the back stairwell of the hotel, where Dan the security guard said people go to do the drugs. Dan wasn’t hired to work at the Garlic Farm property, but at the warehouse area and supply store across the street.
GPD Capt. Kurt Svardal said he gasses up there regularly because he has a car that runs on diesel and doesn’t think it’s any worse than other hotels or freeway stops.
“I’m there all the time,” he said. “Am I afraid? Is it so crime-ridden? I don’t think so, personally. It’s a hotel. You absolutely have folks on the run or part of the criminal element. Is it on our radar screen any worse than other motels like that? I don’t know that it is.”
Mike Ali, who has owned the Garlic Farm Travel Center for 15 years, said he didn’t think there is a lot of illegal activity going on and that police calls are primarily related to problems with the homeless population.
“We don’t think it’s necessary to have a security guard,” he said.
A day there includes truckers, pro wrestlers and Chinese tourists who were at the Outlets earlier.
Originally from Russia, Alex Kisselev has been driving trucks all over the nation for 23 years. So why stop in Gilroy? “First of all, fresh air always, and kind of for me personally, it’s kind of like a cool atmosphere.” Kisselev enjoys the green fields of Gilroy as well. Javier Gusman, originally from Mexico, often passes through Gilroy on his work drives as well. He appreciates the Mediterranean-like climate of the Gilroy area.
Pulling up in their Kia Soul was a professional women’s wrestling and mixed martial arts team from Los Angeles. One of their sponsors is Premier Wrestling, a Gilroy-based company, and so they have good reason to stop in at the travel center. They often fight locally at Gilroy’s IFDES Lodge-Portuguese Hall.
Shayna Baszler, known as The Queen of Spades in the mixed martial arts world, ate a Togo’s roast beef sandwich and said she enjoys the Gilroy stop in particular for its convenience. “It’s familiar. I like it because I have to eat kinda clean, and I like that there’s a sandwich place. Gatorades and waters, and whatever else you need.”
Locals flock together just outside of the Shell stop, where picnic tables serve as their hangout and ’90s hip-hop plays in the background. Gilroyan Ryan Walton considers the truck stop his own personal haunt.
Walton, 28, said the place has gotten a lot better than it used to be. “They know me here, you can kinda hang out here. Since it’s on the south end of town, a lot of travelers stop through here.”
Walton said he does see a police presence, along with a lot of crime. “I see a lot of undercover and they seem to pay a lot of attention to the trucks here.”
