Repo man retires with stories - and his life
By ROBERT FRANKLIN / McClatchy Newspapers
.
WINONA, Minn. — For 30 years, Kim Zarbinski has been the state’s repo man.
He has seized houses, cars, business inventories, jewelry, yachts, rights to a cruise, the remnants of an airplane factory and, most recently in Winona, a 40-some-foot Mississippi River work boat. All in the name of taxes and other debts owed to the state.
Zarbinski, 59, prides himself as being unlikely looking for a tax collector — “the world’s second-oldest profession,” he calls it. He’s a slightly built Vietnam combat veteran who often shows up at a repossession site wearing an earring and a double-breasted suit. And a bulletproof vest, when needed.
On occasion, he said, he’s had a police escort out of town to avoid angry debtors. But, as he nears retirement Jan. 2, he said that “99 percent walk away (with a) better understanding and something they can live with.”
Some even have thanked him later for helping straighten out their affairs or drawing them closer to family, he said.
“He’s a class man,” said Terri Hilger, director of collections for Zarbinski’s agency, the Minnesota Department of Revenue. “He’s very good with people. He’s respectful.”
The riverboat Kaw, his last repossession, was to have been auctioned Wednesday by sealed bid. But the sale was canceled the day before after a deal was struck to reclaim the boat for the minimum bid of $18,000, Zarbinski said. The boat will go to the new Minnesota Marine Art Museum in Winona — a classic case of working things out, he said.
A year younger than Zarbinski, the Kaw served as a utility boat for the William A. Thompson, a big Army Corps of Engineers dredging vessel that will become part of the museum complex in 2008.
With a $100,000 grant from the Fastenal Company’s Slaggie family, the Kaw and two small barges will be restored to become a miniature towboat exhibit on the river.
Since the mid-1990s, the Kaw has been owned by American Plumbing Co., a public works contractor that owes an unemployment compensation debt to the state and, according to Don Evanson, the company’s secretary-treasurer, essentially is defunct after delays in government contracts.
All told, the state has collected $307 million in back taxes and other debts so far this biennium, but has $320 million still owed through October, Hilger said.
Most collections come from voluntary payment plans or levies against wages, banks, state refunds or lottery winnings, Hilger said. Seizures of cash and other property — the last resort — have accounted for about $420,000 in the past year, she said.
Zarbinski grew up on St. Paul’s East Side, sustained a debilitating arm wound in the Vietnam jungle, spent nine months in a military hospital, studied accounting and went to work for the state.
And he’s got stories.
Zarbinski has held open houses to move seized real estate. He once used a St. Paul hotel ballroom to sell diamonds and other jewelry three weeks before Christmas, he said. He took a 40-foot wooden yacht from its owner on its second day in the water one spring, he said, and “that guy was mad.” Because of the possibility of violence, he went in with a SWAT team, he said.
He’s never been assaulted physically by a debtor, but “you don’t know what you’re going to get yourself into because you don’t know what state (of mind) they’re in,” he said. “It’s a little scarier out there now than it was 20 or 30 years ago.”
Zarbinski said he goes into a repossession with the element of surprise, having done his homework and preparing to negotiate a settlement with debtors. “You give them options rather than force them against the wall.”
In Winona, Evanson said last week that he would “withhold judgment” about Zarbinski, but that “he was open to discussion about some options.”
Compared with his Vietnam experiences, being a state repo man “is a cakewalk,” Zarbinski said. Nevertheless, every experience “gives me a knot in my stomach, because you’re doing something tough.”
But there are rewards. For one debtor, it took losing his business for him “to realize he had a family,” Zarbinski said. He got to coach his son’s hockey team and, Zarbinski said, reported that he “was so busy making money, I didn’t realize what I missed.”
.
WINONA, Minn. — For 30 years, Kim Zarbinski has been the state’s repo man.
He has seized houses, cars, business inventories, jewelry, yachts, rights to a cruise, the remnants of an airplane factory and, most recently in Winona, a 40-some-foot Mississippi River work boat. All in the name of taxes and other debts owed to the state.
Zarbinski, 59, prides himself as being unlikely looking for a tax collector — “the world’s second-oldest profession,” he calls it. He’s a slightly built Vietnam combat veteran who often shows up at a repossession site wearing an earring and a double-breasted suit. And a bulletproof vest, when needed.
On occasion, he said, he’s had a police escort out of town to avoid angry debtors. But, as he nears retirement Jan. 2, he said that “99 percent walk away (with a) better understanding and something they can live with.”
Some even have thanked him later for helping straighten out their affairs or drawing them closer to family, he said.
“He’s a class man,” said Terri Hilger, director of collections for Zarbinski’s agency, the Minnesota Department of Revenue. “He’s very good with people. He’s respectful.”
The riverboat Kaw, his last repossession, was to have been auctioned Wednesday by sealed bid. But the sale was canceled the day before after a deal was struck to reclaim the boat for the minimum bid of $18,000, Zarbinski said. The boat will go to the new Minnesota Marine Art Museum in Winona — a classic case of working things out, he said.
A year younger than Zarbinski, the Kaw served as a utility boat for the William A. Thompson, a big Army Corps of Engineers dredging vessel that will become part of the museum complex in 2008.
With a $100,000 grant from the Fastenal Company’s Slaggie family, the Kaw and two small barges will be restored to become a miniature towboat exhibit on the river.
Since the mid-1990s, the Kaw has been owned by American Plumbing Co., a public works contractor that owes an unemployment compensation debt to the state and, according to Don Evanson, the company’s secretary-treasurer, essentially is defunct after delays in government contracts.
All told, the state has collected $307 million in back taxes and other debts so far this biennium, but has $320 million still owed through October, Hilger said.
Most collections come from voluntary payment plans or levies against wages, banks, state refunds or lottery winnings, Hilger said. Seizures of cash and other property — the last resort — have accounted for about $420,000 in the past year, she said.
Zarbinski grew up on St. Paul’s East Side, sustained a debilitating arm wound in the Vietnam jungle, spent nine months in a military hospital, studied accounting and went to work for the state.
And he’s got stories.
Zarbinski has held open houses to move seized real estate. He once used a St. Paul hotel ballroom to sell diamonds and other jewelry three weeks before Christmas, he said. He took a 40-foot wooden yacht from its owner on its second day in the water one spring, he said, and “that guy was mad.” Because of the possibility of violence, he went in with a SWAT team, he said.
He’s never been assaulted physically by a debtor, but “you don’t know what you’re going to get yourself into because you don’t know what state (of mind) they’re in,” he said. “It’s a little scarier out there now than it was 20 or 30 years ago.”
Zarbinski said he goes into a repossession with the element of surprise, having done his homework and preparing to negotiate a settlement with debtors. “You give them options rather than force them against the wall.”
In Winona, Evanson said last week that he would “withhold judgment” about Zarbinski, but that “he was open to discussion about some options.”
Compared with his Vietnam experiences, being a state repo man “is a cakewalk,” Zarbinski said. Nevertheless, every experience “gives me a knot in my stomach, because you’re doing something tough.”
But there are rewards. For one debtor, it took losing his business for him “to realize he had a family,” Zarbinski said. He got to coach his son’s hockey team and, Zarbinski said, reported that he “was so busy making money, I didn’t realize what I missed.”
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