HAD TO ADD THIS...

A 15-year-old boy stole a bus, drove it along a public transit route, picked up passengers and collected fares, authorities said Sunday.



The youth took the bus Saturday from the Central Florida Fairgrounds in Orlando, where it was parked awaiting sale at an auction, a Seminole County sheriff's report said. "I drove that bus better than most of the [transit agency] drivers could," the teen, who is too young to drive legally, told a deputy after he was stopped and arrested.



Passengers and deputies said the teenager drove the bus at normal speeds and made all the appropriate stops on the route. But one passenger, suspicious of the driver's youthful looks, called 911. The youth was charged with grand theft auto and driving without a license.

EVEN VERY WEALTHY COUNTRIES HAVE REPOMEN

Bandar Seri Begawan - The banking industry in Brunei said that repossessed cars, which showed an increase towards the end of 2005 and in early 2006, may have reached its peak and started to decrease in recent months.

"Overall repossessions form a very tiny percentage of total portfolios" a spokesperson for a leading bank told the Bulletin. The spokesperson added that the main reason leading to repossession is the lack of ability to make repayments.

"This is partly due to the hirer's inability to meet financial obligations or as a result of hirers selling their vehicles to third parties - without the consent of the finance company - and the third parties fail to honour their commitment to the hirers."

For customers facing the possibility of their cars being repossessed, the spokesperson said, "All customers who have genuine repayment difficulties will be assisted through reasonable extensions.

"There is also an opportunity to reschedule loans if hirers agree to a detailed examination of means and meet the assessment criteria specified by the bank. This is necessary to avoid a deferment of the problem and to ensure that a sustainable long-term solution is reached."

The spokesperson added that the response from Bruneians on cars for sale by tender, as advertised in newspapers, has been overwhelming.

The general manager of another bank refused to comment on the matter, citing sensitivities involved in the issue. Meanwhile,' a bank executive involved in car repossession said some car owners try to hide their cars to avoid repossession.

"In one case, a car that was about to be repossessed was found in Miri and was intended for sale in the neighbouring state," he said.

He added that a majority of those whose cars are repossessed had been sacked from a job or whose work contracts had expired, such as security personnel. "It is not only cars that are repossessed. I have come across a mini motor that had been repossessed," the bank executive said.

He said customers will have to bear all charges for keeping cars at the yard, specifically at two locations in Gadong. He said some finance companies consult the owner on how much he or she can afford to pay before repossessing the car.

"In such instances, the finance company has to monitor the kind of instalment on a case-to-case basis," he added.

An observer said that as the salary increases, so does daily expenditure.

This in turn leads to individuals finding it difficult to settle car instalments.

He also laid responsibility on banks' easy access to car financing, like quick approval schemes and 100 per cent car financing with no deposit that led customers to paying higher monthly instalments.

Houston Thief Shot...

(10/24/06 - KTRK/HOUSTON) - A tow truck driver is accused of using his tools to steal a show car in northeast Harris County.

Harris County deputies say it all started when a wrecker driver took a car from a northeast Houston home. The owners of the car began chasing the wrecker driver. Police say at some point, they allegedly shot at him, hitting him three times in the back.

At the end of that chase, the car being towed came loose and slammed into a business on the Eastex Freeway feeder near Darwin. The damage was extensive to Tacos las Panchas.

The driver from towing company LAR claims he was repossessing the Mercury Sable. But the car's owner says he was stealing it, which police have confirmed.

The bizarre incident has now shut down Tacos las Panchas. It's a small business that supports at least six people.

"Well, it's shocking. I feel bad for my mom. She's the one that pays the bills and everything. This is going to cost us, pretty much," said the owner's daughter, Anna Karen Resendiz. "We all work hard. This is a family business. We help out my mom. Every day we are here, helping her out, doing whatever we can."

The tow truck driver was taken to Memorial Hermann Hospital. Police say once he recovers, he will likely face charges of theft.
(Copyright © 2006, KTRK-TV)

Repossession of Breast Enlargements Not an Option

A German plastic surgeon was left with few options when a patient "went out for air" after reciving an 8000 euro breast enlargement and made a run for it. "She never came back and never paid," Michael Koenig, a surgeon in Cologne said.

The patient used a fake name making tracking her down virtually impossible. While Koenig now demands payment in advance he is still on the hunt for "Tanja" and her 8000 euro breasts.

In a final attempt to catch "Tanja", Koenig took out a five column advertisment in Bild picturing "Tanja's" naked breasts. "It's probably the most unusual wanted poster police ever had," the newspaper wrote

Man faces charges in car's repossession

Wednesday, October 18, 2006

EVESHAM
A township resident upset about the fact that a man was trying to repossess his car is suspected of running into the man using the vehicle, police said.

Joseph Girone, 48, of Kelly Drive in Marlton, was charged with unspecified offenses and released on bail pending a court hearing.

The incident happened Sunday at Girone's home, police said.

A man representing a repossession company tried to take Girone's vehicle. At one point, he stood in front of the car while Girone was at the wheel.

Girone allegedly hit the man, then pulled into his driveway and parked in his garage, police said.

The victim suffered minor injuries and refused medical treatment, police said.

Fake Repo Men Stealing Cars

Written By Doug Buchanan
9NEWS NOW
Created:10/16/2006 10:28:36 PM
Last Updated:10/17/2006 9:10:24 AM




There’s a new type of crime in Maryland.

Criminals are becoming more brazen. In recent months, there have been several cases of thieves stealing tow trucks in order to steal other vehicles.

Police say that may have been the case last week in Largo.

Raymond Brown, a-k-a "Scotty Beats", a music producer, was shot to death by a fake repo man. Two men in a possibly stolen tow truck took off with his car. Beats went after the men and they killed him.

On Monday, we watched as a tow truck hooked up and took away a car within seconds – not minutes.

So imagine the front a tow truck provides a car thief. A company name, a provided purpose. And far too many times, a stolen vehicle.

Police say people don't look at a tow truck operator and view them as car thieves ... and that's what these guys have working for them.

It isn’t exactly a new concept, but an old idea being carried out more and more each day. Police warn people not to risk their lives confronting what might be an armed car thief.

Police say get a tag number and stay inside.
Henry’s Towing has had three trucks stolen in the last three years. As the tow truck drivers say … it takes seconds to steal a truck and even less time to steal a car when you have one.

Man Guilty Of Shooting Repo Worker

Ohio County, WV --

A jury found a man guilty of attempting to murder two workers sent to repossess his furniture.

Charlie Brown was found guilty of firing shots at two Rent-A-Center employees when they came to repossess his television set and furniture in Triadelphia.

One of the men was struck by a bullet and took the stand to tell his story.

"The first one went right here, in my shoulder, and ricocheted up into here and down into my chest and fractured six of my ribs. I actually have the bullet in my ribs. They couldn't remove it," he said.

Even though the bullet hit him last October, he still has mental anguish.

"I have nightmares - sometimes flashbacks of it," he said.

The victim said he is afraid to go out in public, making it difficult to spend time with his family.

"My wife and kids and mom went to the fireworks this year, but I didn't go because I don't like being around big crowds of people," he said.

On the stand, the victim told jurors he's thankful he's alive, but it has been a slow recovery. He now has to wear an arm brace to use his hand.

"I can't do half the stuff I used to do, and when I do do it, it's that much harder trying to do it with one arm," he said.

The other witness testified Brown put a gun to his head and pulled the trigger. He was not shot, but did hear the click of the gun.

POLITE REPOMAN

The polite repo man
Kinder, gentler version of repossession game works in Siouxland
By John Quinlan, Journal staff writer

Meet Jim Oien, the kinder, gentler repo man.

Sixty years old and battling cancer, the owner of Sioux City's Talon Agency has been a repo man for 20 years. He and his assistant, Donna Peterson, a repo vet only a little younger than Oien who also works as his downtown office manager, continue to do what many would consider dangerous work, recovering motor vehicles and other property reclaimed by banks and credit unions.

Oien, in fact, is a Sioux Falls high school classmate of Peterson's husband, which is how they became acquainted and Oien offered her the job five years ago.

Most people when thinking of a "Repo Man," picture the Emilio Estevez movie of that name with its sleazy characters or the leg-breaking antics of Sylvester Stallone in the first "Rocky." Films are full of "collection agents" sneaking around in the middle of the night stealing cars or flashing guns as they reclaim property in the daylight hours. Even then, there is no real "stealing" involved because the repo men have a legal right to do what they're doing.

Jim Oien has seen those characters and their real-life counterparts. Some still work the streets of Sioux City, he noted. He simply chooses not to emulate them.

Nationwide, auto repossession is a billion-dollar industry with some 5,000 firms in the United States working out of their homes and small offices, according to the Web site of one regional company which declined an interview request.

Oien says he has never been threatened by anyone. When facing a belligerent person, he walks away.

He started out with a partner in a collection agency that did a few repossessions, but gradually the number increased. "Then we got into them, and we started doing them nice, clean and quick," he said.

He owns a collection agency and a private investigation service, but repo work continues to provide a steady income.

"When I started doing repossessions, I took a little different tack," he said. "Instead of scouting people out and hitting their cars in the middle of the night or stealing them when they're at work, I'd typically go out and I'd talk to the people. I'll explain the situation to them, and of course they're pretty much understanding of what's happening."

He explains that the people have 10 days to reclaim their vehicle, the worst-case scenario being that they would have to come up with another loan somewhere to pay for it. The biggest problem people have, he said, is that they just don't contact their creditors to work something out.

"Most generally they can work out something with the bank if it's not a big problem. Sometimes it's such a small thing as their insurance lapsed, and of course a lending institution isn't going to leave an expensive piece of equipment like a car out there with no insurance on it. Their business is to force the insurance on it; and in the meantime they'll repo the vehicle if the insurance isn't put on it," he said.

Oien chose the more polite business route because he concluded that most of the people he was dealing with weren't deadbeats. If they were deadbeats, Peterson said, they never would have gotten the loan in the first place. And they probably would have disappeared.

"Most of them are upright citizens," Oien said. They've just fallen on hard times. And they're not in hiding.

Why the repossessions?

There are three reasons, he said, why people get their vehicle repossessed: a major illness, divorce or losing a job.

Most of the vehicles he gets back are in pretty good shape, and they are returned to the lenders in better shape than they would be if he had to break into and hot-wire them. With Talon's service, the lenders even get the keys back.

"I serve papers for the courts, too. And most of the time when we leave somebody, whether we've taken their car or left papers with them concerning whatever, they say 'thank you' when we leave," he said. "We always give them an opportunity to get their personal belongings out of the car. We explain to them that they need to contact the lending institution and talk to them, and they've got 10 days to do that.

Oien said one banker told him that since Talon had been repossessing vehicles for him for about three years, the bank has never had a claim of damage or a claim of missing items "and most importantly the people don't come in here screaming. They come in here and they're just in a business mode to do business."

He often has a repossessed car back on the banker's lot within two or three hours. In one piece.

The gentler, kinder approach might not work in the bigger cities, like New York or Chicago, he admitted. And it doesn't always work in Sioux City. People going through bankruptcy proceedings or other hardships are sometimes recalcitrant.

"I had one guy tell me if I ever came back, he'd turn his dog loose on me," Peterson said. "And he wasn't joking. When we run into a situation like that, we just leave."

That hostility wasn't entirely unfamiliar. Peterson noted that she used to work in the city and county assessors' offices.

Peterson is the first to admit she doesn't look like the traditional repo man. "I think that's kind of an advantage," she said. "I always tell Jim they think I'm the Tupperware lady. So they just open the door to me."

Most Siouxlanders are reasonable and understanding of what these repo folks do, Oien said, and they cooperate as long as they are treated with respect and allowed to maintain their dignity. They lack the mindset of a criminal who feels that because a car is in his possession, it's his.

"I used to be in the rental industry. There was an axiom that went with that -- the longer people had a piece of rental equipment in their possession, the more they felt they owned it," Oien said. "It's sort of that same way with the cars."

That is why the Talon repo folks work discreetly. If they approach someone at their place of work, they ask to speak with them off to the side. They don't embarrass them and they let them remove their personal property from the vehicle. And on occasion, the admittedly soft-hearted Oien has offered displaced drivers a ride home, once even hauling a man to Correctionville. "If I see somebody in trouble, I'll help them if I can," he said.

He said he wouldn't take the Journal on a typical repo job because it would violate the privacy rights of the people with whom he deals.

Repossession firms don't always advertise. They contact banks and credit unions, as Oien did, and slowly build up a client base of regular referrals. Repo men and women are also sent into Siouxland from Sioux Falls, Omaha, Des Moines and beyond, Oien said. "There are several people in town who do repossessions," he said.

Occasionally, even the nice repo folks meet resistance, people who won't part with their vehicles come hell or high water.

"I've run into some of those," Oien said. "And I'll explain to them what a replevin action is. A replevin action is where the lender will go to court and get a court order to pick up their property. And a deputy sheriff will come out and pick it up usually. That costs $600 to $1,000, as I remember. And that gets added to the bill. So it's a better deal with me than to have it go one step further. They're going to acquire more debt."

The one vehicle Oien won't touch is the semi-truck.

"That's a whole new ballgame because you're talking about somebody's livelihood now," he said. "They typically aren't giving it up, and they have a whole different mentality about that vehicle. It's not the ride to and from work. It's the bread and butter on the table. I understand they have some real problems with those."

Peterson said she met a repo man who specialized in semis, traveling the country, occasionally stopping in Sioux City. That man carries a gun. "It's nasty work," she said. "It's not anything I'd want to do."

Some towing companies are also employed for repo work.

Oien tried to get one such company to tow a vehicle for him, but no matter how forcefully he explained that the vehicle owner was OK with the towing, that the car just wouldn't start, the towing company man declined. He told Oien, "Oh, no! I don't do repos. I've been shot at. I don't do repos."

The Talon Agency does.

3 HP detectives plead not guilty

By Jordan Robertson
Associated Press



SAN JOSE, Calif. — Three private investigators who obtained confidential telephone records as part of Hewlett-Packard's boardroom spying inquiry pleaded not guilty yesterday to identity theft and other felony charges.

Ronald DeLia of Massachusetts-based Security Outsourcing Solutions Inc., Matthew DePante of Florida-based Action Research Group Inc. and Bryan Wagner of Colorado were arraigned in Santa Clara County Superior Court. Each was released on personal recognizance.



DeLia, DePante and Wagner are among five people criminally charged last week for their roles in the spying scandal at the computer and printer giant. Former HP Chairwoman Patricia Dunn and the company's ousted ethics chief, Kevin Hunsaker, appeared in court late last week.

The charges concern using false or fraudulent pretenses to obtain confidential information from a public utility; unauthorized access to computer data; identity theft; and conspiracy to commit each of those crimes. Each charge carries a fine of up to $10,000 and three years in prison.

State Attorney General Bill Lockyer has said the investigation is ongoing and could lead to more charges.

The three investigators are accused of impersonating HP board members, employees and journalists to trick telephone companies into divulging private phone logs.

DeLia, a longtime HP contractor on security investigations, allegedly was the middleman between HP and the other two investigators.

According to an affidavit filed in support of the charges, Dunn worked with DeLia on HP's ultimately unsuccessful investigation into leaks to the media last year.

HP then contracted with him again this year after a story appeared on CNET's News.com Web site in January with an anonymous source discussing a board retreat.

DeLia contracted with Action Research Group, where DePante is a manager, to obtain the private phone logs. He in turn hired Wagner as a subcontractor, according to the criminal complaint.

Thanks to Pat at Falcon for the link.

Monday, October 09, 2006
James F. McCarty
Plain Dealer Reporter

John Wayne Judd gets a kick out of watching television shows and movies about guys who repossess automobiles - repo men, like him.

The on-screen lives of repo men bear little resemblance, however, to Judd's real-life experiences.

"Guys coming at you with baseball bats. Guys coming at you with shotguns. Guys ramming your car with theirs. That's what really happens," said Judd, 44, of Madison.

"I had a woman hit me in the face with a brick once. Broke the bridge of my nose."

That's the price repo men pay for forcibly taking back cars from drivers who don't pay for them but refuse to give them back without a fight.

It's a job that requires repo men to walk a fine line between serving as an arm of law enforcement and breaking the law - a line that Judd used to cross, but no more, he insists.

Some police officers and prosecutors don't believe him, however, and they don't appreciate the repo man's line of work, he said.

"Whenever I get attacked, the police say, 'It's a civil matter,' " Judd said.

"With anyone else it would be a criminal case."

A repo job gone bad last December got Judd stuck in the predicament he's in now.

He and his partner, Bill Hale, received a contract to repossess a 1999 Pontiac Grand Prix whose owner had never made a payment.

He tracked the car to a house on Washington Park Boulevard in Newburgh Heights that belonged to the father of the car owner's girlfriend.

A girl in the house spotted Judd snooping around the garage, so he said he identified himself as a repo man and flashed his repo badge with the name of his company, Nationwide Recovery. But the car wasn't there, and the residents shooed Judd off the property.

They called the Newburgh Heights police and accused Judd of entering their house and identifying himself as a police officer.

The police weren't sympathetic when they found Judd and Hale parked at the end of the street waiting for the Grand Prix's return.

An officer cuffed the men and threatened to spray Mace in Hale's mouth when he protested, Judd said.

The officers allowed Judd and Hale to leave without being arrested after their repo job paperwork checked out.

Ohio law gives repo men the right to enter private property as long as they don't "breach the peace" - a vague description preventing them from breaking into a home or garage or from threatening anyone.

But Judd was still angry with the police officer, whom he accused of roughing up Hale. So he called Newburgh Heights officials the next day to complain.

Judd said Police Chief Michael McKeon and Law Director David Maistros told him in blunt and profane language what he could do with his complaints and threatened to have him indicted if he didn't drop it.

A month later, on Jan. 11, a county grand jury issued a two-count indictment charging Judd with impersonation of a police officer and burglary.

McKeon and Maistros have both resigned for unrelated reasons.

McKeon, who worked in the village for nearly two years, said last month that he negotiated a buyout with the village during its investigation of complaints against him. Maistros is now law director in Twinsburg.

McKeon could not be reached to comment. Maistros said he had talked to the mayor about the case but did not recall talking to Judd.

For six months, the case worked its way through the Cuyahoga County courts. The prosecutors urged Judd to accept a plea bargain to a lesser charge, and Judd said they made their displeasure known when he refused.

"Why should I?" Judd said. "I didn't do anything wrong. We had all the proper paperwork to repossess the car that night, and the police let us go. They said we didn't do anything wrong."

Things got worse for Judd on Aug. 24. About 5 p.m., Assistant Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Debra Obed told Cleveland police that someone in a red pickup truck had bumped her car several times, pushing her into the intersection of Detroit Avenue and Berea Road, said Sgt. Rich Peters, who is investigating.

Obed was the prosecutor in Judd's Newburgh Heights case. She told investigators that she "had a feeling" Judd was the driver of the other car but that the driver had concealed his appearance with a ball cap and sunglasses.

Shortly before midnight, Judd returned home with his three children, ages 16, 10 and 7, and a 12-year-old neighbor who played on a youth baseball team Judd coaches. They had been to a Lake County Captains baseball game in Eastlake.

A team of Cuyahoga County sheriff's deputies was waiting to arrest him, and they took him to the County Jail.

The deputies were in no mood to listen to Judd protest that he was 40 miles away at the time of the incident - and that he could prove it.

"Even if he was Superman he couldn't have done this," said Judd's lawyer, John Carlin.

Judd said that he is no saint - he did a few stints in prison in his younger days for passing bad checks and for an attempted felonious assault - but that he has cleaned up his act since then. He said he had no motive to engage a prosecutor in a bumper-car battle.

Common Pleas Judge Nancy Fuerst, who signed Judd's arrest papers, didn't hear Judd's alibi until eight days after his arrest.

Judd said it would have been impossible for him to have driven the truck that knocked into Obed's car.

He produced witnesses and receipts to support his contention that he was buying soda pop and pizza at Georgio's in Madison at the time Obed said her car was struck. He said he hasn't owned or driven a red pickup truck in more than a year.

Carlin was fuming by the time Fuerst agreed to hold a hearing on Sept. 1. He said he had visited Fuerst's courtroom four times a day for a week until the judge acknowledged his presence.

"She was going to let him sit in there until Labor Day," Carlin said. "It was just a mean, nasty act. We know that they know [Judd] didn't do it, but they just wanted to mess with him."

Fuerst agreed to release Judd on a writ of habeas corpus - thus conceding that Judd was being held in jail illegally. But she didn't file his release papers until more than six hours later.

Fuerst blames Carlin for Judd's eight days in jail. She said she declined to release Judd because Carlin had failed to file a petition for a writ of habeas corpus until the seventh day. She denied noticing Carlin waiting outside her office.

"I don't know what [Carlin] was doing," the judge said. "I don't even know if he was here."

No charges have been filed in the Obed road rage case, but prosecutors praised Fuerst for taking steps to rein in Judd.

"Given the significant risk posed to [Obed's] physical safety, the judge prudently exercised her legal authority to revoke this defendant's bond," said prosecutor's office spokeswoman Michele Tolar.

The Obed case has had serious ramifications for the Newburgh Heights case.

At Carlin's request, Fuerst removed herself from the case. She had a difficult time explaining her decision, however, according to a transcript of the hearing.

"The court sees that the way things have developed, that this - in fact, the - in view of this new finding, that in - and what has come before, that in order to start, I agree with Mr. Carlin, with a clean slate here, I am going to order the case - or request that the case be reassigned to another judge and we'll do that," Fuerst said.

Carlin resigned as Judd's lawyer, figuring he may be called as a witness to testify in Judd's defense.

Assistant County Prosecutor Rick Bell, head of the Major Trials Unit, replaced Obed on the case with two of the office's rising stars, Matthew Golish and Jennifer Driscoll.

The new judge, Shirley Strickland Saffold, scheduled Judd's trial for Oct. 17.

Judd's wife, Sandy, said she worries more about her husband when he's in court than when he's on a repo job, and she can't wait until the case is over.

"This has been a nightmare for us," she said.

"In court, you have no control over what other people are doing with your life. Your life is in a whirlwind until a final verdict is delivered.

"When is this all going to stop?"

New law good for the repo man

You may catch a TV or movie scene showing the "repo man" pulling up and towing away a car when the owner falls behind on payments. It makes for good drama, but historically, it has been extremely rare in real life in Wisconsin -- that is, until a few months ago when a change in Wisconsin's consumer law took effect.

Act 255 now makes it much easier for Wisconsin banks or lenders to repossess a vehicle when a person isn't making the payments. The law provides a simplified process to use repossession as a method of dealing with nonpayers, and that, in turn, helps lenders reduce associated costs.

The nonpayer benefits by not having to pay additional court costs and good customers potentially benefit in the form of reduced interest rates.

In the past, lenders' hands were tied when it came to taking action on unpaid consumer loans. Unless the consumer who was behind on payments voluntarily surrendered the vehicle, the lender had to go through several legal hoops, including filing a small-claims action to regain the collateral -- the car.

The consumer then had the ability to contest the action and have a trial. If the lender failed to follow these procedures and repossessed the car without going to court first, the consumer could recover the car, the payments made on the car and legal fees, easily costing lenders tens of thousands of dollars.

Additionally, before Act 255, even if the nonpaying consumer voluntarily surrendered the vehicle, without a proper form, there was no guarantee that the consumer would not change his mind later and claim he was forced into giving up the car. Again, that could result in a lengthy court battle and a big potential hit to the lender's bottom line.

These were huge risks that many banks and lenders did not want to take and that left them scratching their heads about how to effectively deal with a nonpayer. Act 255, which took effect in April, is a change in the law that all lenders should be aware of and understand because it greatly reduces their financial risk when a car is repossessed.

The new law removes that triple liability for lenders (losing the car and its payments and having to pay legal fees) if certain procedures are followed, and it makes repossessing a car a simpler process.

Now the creditor can repossess a vehicle if, among other things, it notifies the debtor of the merchant's ability to recover the vehicle and provides notice that the customer has 15 days to object to the repossession.

Secondly, before picking up the car (and after the 15-day period has expired), the creditor must notify verbally or in writing the local law enforcement agency about the repossession.

The only caveat to lenders and repossession companies is that the new law specifically states the repossession cannot breach the peace, so the tire squealing and the shot of the customer running after the repo agent, which adds drama to movie screen repossessions, will not be seen here in Wisconsin.

With Act 255 now in place, I believe many Wisconsin lenders will start taking repossession steps to protect their investments, and the repo man will be much busier in the days to come. In fact, already several Madison-area lenders are researching the law and determining how repossession can become an important, and less risky, tool in their strategy and policies for dealing with nonpaying consumers.

That's good news for Capital Region lenders and means trouble ahead for consumers who default on their loans.

Banana charged by Sheriff's Office with uttering a forgery

Dispatch Staff Report


The Rev. James Banana, 39, a well-known figure around Columbus, was arrested Tuesday on uttering forgery charges.

Banana, of 1424 Third Ave. N., Apt. B, in Columbus, was arrested Tuesday at 3 p.m. at his residence.

“He had a vehicle repossessed,” said Lowndes County Sheriff's Office Investigator Tony Cooper, adding that during the repossession, counterfeit money was discovered in the vehicle.

“In the vehicle was found a checkbook that contained several counterfeit bills,” Cooper said. “We were able to obtain a warrant and picked him up.

ADESA Breaks Ground on New Kansas City Auction Facility

CARMEL, Ind., Aug. 29 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- ADESA executives and staff today joined Lee's Summit Mayor Karen Messerli, customers and dignitaries at a ground-breaking ceremony for a major construction project that will replace the existing ADESA Kansas City auction with a new state-of-the-art facility. The new auction will be located on a 196-acre parcel located just south of the existing facility in Lee's Summit, Missouri. The groundbreaking caps off a flurry of activity at ADESA Kansas City where more than 2,000 cars and trucks were offered during the preceding week to dealers at wholesale auction events to commemorate the milestone.
"This new facility will not only help us to meet future growth in the Kansas City market, but will also allow us to improve the service we're able to provide our auction partners here on a daily basis," said Dave Gartzke, Chairman and CEO of ADESA, Inc. "ADESA is committed to meeting the needs of our customers and to making sure the auction experience for our dealers is second to none. This new auction represents a vast improvement for our ADESA Kansas City customers and employees."

Lee's Summit Mayor Karen Messerli echoed Gartzke's enthusiasm for the new auction facility. "ADESA is a major employer in the area and their decision to build this new, larger facility is a significant investment in their employees, customers and the local economy," Messerli said. "This move not only creates dozens of construction jobs, it also creates a secondary boost to the economy by opening up the existing auction property for redevelopment."



When completed, the new ADESA Kansas City facility will feature:
* A brand new auction facility on 196 acres
* Parking for more than 15,000 vehicles
* 10 auction lanes with digital video and audio
* Easy access for dealer check-in
* Drive over inspection in facility mechanical shop
* Increased dealer parking
* Designated areas for car hauler loading and unloading
* State-of-the-art body shop with 200 unit-per-day capacity
* New mechanical repair facility with 16 bays and 10 lifts
* New dealer lounge with Internet access and terminals
* A full cafeteria
* An on-site floorplan financing office
The prime contractor for the new ADESA Kansas City auction is Shiel Sexton Construction Company of Indianapolis, Indiana. The new facility is expected to be open for business in late 2007.

About ADESA Corporation, LLC

ADESA Corporation, LLC, offers a full range of auction, reconditioning, logistical and other vehicle-related services to meet the remarketing needs of both its institutional and dealer customers. With 40 auction locations in the United States, 13 in Canada and one in Mexico, strategically located near metropolitan areas with a large concentration of used vehicle dealers, the company is well positioned to host both physical and Internet auctions. Through its related subsidiaries of AutoVIN® and Par North America, it is also able to provide additional services including inspections, inventory audits and remarketing outsourcing solutions including a network of repossession agents, titling and auction sale representation. Visit http://www.adesa.com for more details.

This press release includes forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Such statements, including statements regarding growth projections and job creation are subject to certain risks, trends, and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those projected, expressed or implied by such forward- looking statements. The statements are based on assumptions about important factors including: general business conditions; market trends; competition; weather; vehicle production; trends in new and used vehicle sales; business development activities, including acquisitions; economic conditions, including exchange rate and interest rate fluctuations; litigation developments; and the other risk factors described in the company's Annual Report on Form 10-K, and other risks described from time to time in the company's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Many of these risk factors are outside of the company's control, and as such, they involve risks which are not currently known to the company that could cause actual results to differ materially from forecasted results. The forward-looking statements in this document are made as of the date hereof and the company does not undertake to update its forward-looking statements.

RECOVERY AGENT TO THE RESCUE

YBOR CITY – Two Tampa police officers and a mechanic rescued a man from a burning building on Seventh Avenue East in Ybor City this morning.

Police officer Tim Pasley and Sal Mazza, both mounted patrol officers, were in the area buying food for their horses when they smelled smoke coming from 3812 Seventh Avenue East about 11:30 a.m.

The officers called Tampa Fire & Rescue and Officer Mazza kicked open the door of the building with the help of mechanic Jorge Ruiz, 33, who works across the street and also saw the smoke rising from the building.

Mazza found a man lying on the floor. According to Tampa Fire officials Officer Pasley had to go in after them into the building as Mazza was almost overcome by the fire.

The two story building is the office for Eagle Recovery and Transport, a car repossession business.

According to the owner, Eric Dumoulin, one employee was staying at the business in an upstairs apartment.

It was a two-alarm fire and 7th Avenue was blocked off from 36th Street to several blocks to the left.

The man who was rescued and the two police officers were taken to Tampa General Hospital where the officers are being treated for smoke inhalation. The man in his 40s is awake and talking.

The cause of the fire has not yet been determined.

Say What?

JACKSONVILLE, FL -- Subaru Jacksonville sells new and used vehicles. We seldom get a complaint about this dealership, but in July they sold an SUV to Tanya Mercer, pending approval by a finance company.

"I haven't even made my first payment," says Mercer.

Mercer has the keys, but not her Black 2002 Chevy Tahoe. A few days after she signed the sales contract it was repossessed.

"I dropped my kids off to school and my mom asked me where did I park my truck and I said under the window," says Mercer.

Mercer said she looked out the window of her third story apartment and her SUV was missing so she called the police.

"I'm shocked, I thought it was stolen, but they said it was repossessed," she said.

It was repossessed because the previous owner was behind on the payments. In the vehicle her sales contract and other possessions.

Since she's not the original owner the bank will not discuss the issue. Mercer wants the dealer to help.

On Your Side spoke with the finance manager and he says they will assist Mercer recover what was in the vehicle.

But Milton Revell said, "We never bought the vehicle, we never took title of the vehicle. We handled the sale, pending approval of the financing."

Revell says it was at the request of the owner, S&H Investment Firm. Beyond that they have no interest in the sale.

The Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicle Spokesman said a dealer cannot sell a vehicle he does not own and they are encouraging Mercer to file a complaint with them.