REPOSSESSION AND RECOVERY NEWS

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2011-07-26T11:23:00.000-07:00

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From South Carolina

2007-12-03T10:30:00.000-08:00

ANDERSON — An employee of Anderson’s Rent-A-Center told Anderson City Police officers that his attempt to repossess furniture left him looking down the barrel of a pistol.

The incident was reported at 11 a.m. Thursday on Sears Street.

John Engberg, 23, told police that he had given a woman until 3 p.m. to pay. She offered to pay by 5 p.m.

Words were exchanged and then the woman pulled a gun, “cocked it and put it in his face,” according to Mr. Engberg’s version of the incident, the officer’s report states.

The woman denied pulling a gun.

An arrest is pending an investigation.

Toledo Update

2007-12-01T20:55:00.001-08:00

Two men shot one another yesterday in the 100 block of Spencer Street in South Toledo during an altercation over a tow truck, police said.

Eliseo Selvera III, who lives on Spencer, was taken to Toledo Hospital. Ronald Nigh of Parrakeet Avenue was taken to University of Toledo Medical Center, formerly Medical College of Ohio Hospital. Nursing supervisors at both hospitals said they had no information about patients by those names.

Two men went to Mr. Selvera’s house about 1:30 a.m. and asked him to tow a car for them. He refused and told them to leave. He and Mr. Nigh were wounded during an exchange of gunfire, police said.

From Ohio

2007-12-01T18:54:00.000-08:00

TOLEDO -- Toledo police are investigating an attempted home invasion that ended with two people shot.

This all happened around 1:45 a.m Friday in the 100 block of Spencer near Western Ave. in south Toledo. Police tell us two men came to the back door of the house and allegedly told the man living inside -- who works as a "repo-man" -- that they wanted to talk about a tow.

The man told police they then tried to force their way inside. The homeowner was shot once in the arm. He said he fired back on the suspects, hitting one four times.

The suspects took off, and a short time later, the injured suspect was dropped off at University of Toledo Medical Center. His condition is not being released.

From DC

2007-11-17T19:34:00.000-08:00

An employee of the Delaware River & Bay Authority Police Department in Lewes faces charges following a Georgetown incident.

Ismael Torres Jr., 32, of Georgetown, was arrested by state troopers Friday. Torres was formerly a corporal at the Milton Police Department, where he received several awards for service in the line of duty.

State troopers and investigators with the state Attorney General's Office were assigned the case Nov. 7 after three employees of the Complete Auto Recovery Company in Millsboro filed a complaint against Torres. The employees alleged Torres identified himself as a police officer and threatened to shoot them as they attempted to repossess a 2002 Ford Explorer parked on private property in Georgetown. Detectives said they were told that Torres allegedly made the threats toward the members of the recovery service while demanding that they vacate the property.

Police said the Ford Explorer was in the process of being affixed to a wrecker for repossession. Torres allegedly entered the Ford and drove it away from the recovery equipment, causing one of the straps to hit a member of the recovery service, police said.

Torres was charged with misdemeanor offenses including one count of offensive touching, three counts of terroristic threatening and one count of second-degree reckless endangerment; he was processed and arraigned at Troop 4 and released on $2,050 unsecured bond.

From Washington

2007-11-17T19:14:00.000-08:00

Because he was working quickly, the repo driver did not notice the 5- and 7-year-old children when he arrived at a grocery store parking lot Thursday morning to take the 1996 Ford Explorer, police Officer Jennifer DeRuwe said.

The father had left the children in the vehicle when he ran into the store for doughnuts. He called police when he saw the car and kids missing; the repo man also called police after arriving at the repo lot and discovering the passengers.

It's not illegal to leave children unattended in a car as long as it's not running, is not outside a bar, and the weather doesn't pose a danger, DeRuwe said.

Police said the children were returned unharmed to their father.

"They were fine, saying 'Hey Dad,' when he came to get them," she said

From California

2007-11-13T19:24:00.000-08:00

Palm Springs police arrested a repossession agent and a man who sprayed him with a garden house as a vehicle was being recovered, a sergeant said.

The tiff in the 2300 block of Finley Road occurred about 7 Tuesday night, Palm Springs police Sgt. Mitch Spike said. He said 34-year-old Lincoln Walker of Palm Desert went to retrieve a vehicle from someone who was behind on payments.

During the repossession, the owner's roommate, 45-year-old Mark Todd, got Walker's permission to remove personal items from the car, Spike said. But tension rose when Walker asked Todd for the keys, and Todd denied having a set.

Todd "demanded that Walker take the vehicle and leave the property," Spike said. "When Walker refused to leave, Todd allegedly turned on a garden hose and sprayed Walker."

Walker whipped out a collapsible baton and brandished it at Walker, according to Spike.

When police arrived, both were arrested -- Todd on suspicion of misdemeanor battery, and Walker on suspicion of possessing of an unlawful weapon, a felony, and brandishing a weapon, Spike said.

The pair were booked at the Palm Spring Jail and released, he said.

From South Carolina

2007-11-13T13:41:00.000-08:00

Two men are arrested for impersonating a police officer. The victim says they ran him off the road to repossess his truck.

Run off the road and roughed up. A man says he was attacked by a repo man and a used car salesman pretending to be law enforcement officers. The men were arrested on Friday on Asheville Highway in Inman. Deputies say they went too far in trying to re-possess a truck.

The victim says he was headed up Asheville Highway on Friday afternoon with other cars all over the road when all of a sudden a tow truck bumped him from behind, and forced him off the road and in a parking lot. He says the man he had bought the truck from and the repo man proceeded to push him around. But he says this actually all started in his driveway.

Kevin Parker says he was sitting in his truck in his own driveway when all of a sudden he was rammed from behind. He says he looked up to see a tow truck hooked up to his vehicle. He says he was afraid so he put the truck in four-wheel drive and took off. He says the men followed him up Asheville Highway, forced him off the road and then started shoving him around. He says the repo man claimed to be a law enforcement officer and then a witness who saw what was going on called 911.

Deputies say the two men are Tony Cooper who works for a repo company and Justin Harness who is the manager of Credit Cars in Taylors, where Parker bought his truck. They were arrested and charged with impersonating an officer, reckless driving and assault and battery.

Tony Cooper works for a company called Professional Auto Recovery out of Greenville. The name may sound familiar to you because we did a story on them back in April after one of their tow trucks tried to tow away a vehicle with a woman still inside.

The Better Business Bureau says 11 people have filed complaints about the towing company, some alleging damage to vehicles or property, others believe they should not have been towed. Cooper adamantly tells us the complaints are "not correct".

Mexia, TX Sheriff's Blotter

2007-10-26T12:39:00.000-07:00

Man flags down woman on Hwy-179, says she has tire troubles, then snatched her keys and left with the vehicle......Turned out to be Friendly Joe of Auto Repo.......Repossessed the car for non-payment, left the Lady and her kids on the side of the road.....Her husband now en route to pick them up

From Texas

2007-10-21T14:55:00.000-07:00

Amarillo - A man loaded a 2000 Jeep Cherokee onto a wrecker and drove away with it while the daughter of the Jeep's owner watched Wednesday night.

At about 7:45 p.m., the woman approached the man and asked what he was doing. The man told her he was "from the bank" and was taking the Jeep from the residence in the 1000 block of South Pryor Street, the Amarillo Police Department reported.

The woman asked to retrieve some personal items from the Jeep, and the man struck the woman, giving her a non-serious injury on the arm as she tried to enter the vehicle, police reported. The man then towed away the vehicle with a dark green Dodge 1-ton dual-wheel pickup, the APD said.

Police said they have been unable to locate a lending institution that has ordered repossession of the Jeep.

Anyone wishing to repossess a vehicle must immediately notify the APD, police said.

From Indiana

2007-10-21T14:50:00.000-07:00

A Porterville man was arrested this morning on suspicion of brandishing a firearm and threatening to shoot the man who was repossessing his car.

The firearm turned out to be a “realistic looking” pellet gun, according to a Tulare County Sheriff’s Department release.

Marvin Miller, 45, was booked on suspicion of brandishing a weapon and making threats. The victim, Brian Williamson, said he was threatened just after midnight in the 1900 block of North Maston Street in Porterville.

From Nebraska

2007-10-21T14:46:00.000-07:00

LINCOLN - A man was arrested after police say he attacked three people trying to repossess his car. The man, 59, was working at Shoemaker's Thursday evening when he was told his car was being repossessed.

Police said the man ran outside and got into the car. Two Priority Auto employees, a 22-year-old woman and 31-year-old man, jumped on the hood of the car to keep him from leaving. The suspect drove around the lot, then stopped and got out.

Police said the woman got in the driver's seat and the suspect allegedly grabbed her and threatened the other man with a screwdriver.

He also allegedly punched an 18-year-old employee.

Lot Owner Fires Shot. - North Carolina

2007-10-03T14:28:00.000-07:00

A dealership owner was responsible for the lone gunshot fired during Thursday's repossession turned arrest, according to reports from the Pitt County Sheriff's Office.

A sheriff's office spokesman confirmed Tim Stox, owner of East Carolina Auto Exchange, fired a single shot at a sports utility vehicle a man was trying to keep from being repossessed.

Stox fired "in fear his property would be damaged," and probably won't face charges because the .22-caliber handgun wasn't aimed at a person, Chief Lee Moore with the sheriff's office said on Friday.

Thomas Ortiz Rogers Jr. arrived at East Carolina Auto Exchange, 3825 Charles Blvd., intending to trade his GMC Denali, which was due to be repossessed by financiers. The dealership contacted the company that financed the vehicle, which sent a repossession team to the car lot.

Learning his car was about to be seized, Rogers jumped into the driver's seat and attempted to escape, hitting two other vehicles in the process. That is when Stox fired his weapon, Moore said.

The incident report was unclear about whether the bullet struck its intended target. No one was hurt.

Deputies arrested Rogers, 36, of 2414 Ann Lane on outstanding warrants including multiple counts of worthless checks, failure to appear and probation violations. No charges have been filed in connection with the incident at the dealership.

His wife, Anna Bunn Rogers, 30, of 295 Fairmont Ave. was arrested at the scene and charged with carrying a concealed weapon.

Agents Used For Target Practice, Again. - Florida

2007-10-03T13:59:00.000-07:00

Two repo agents are shaken, but physically ok after they say they were shot-at on the job. It's a rare but very real danger in a business that's become increasingly busy.

Agents from Richardson Detective Agency go out to repossess vehicles daily, but rarely have to dodge bullets, as two agents say they did on Monday night.

"Telling him, please don't shoot, please don't shoot. I'm a repo man here to check out the truck," Scott Van Dress described the situation. "I can honestly say, the shot was not a warning shot."

Van Dress says he and his partner were trying to repossess a pick-up at a home in Alva at about 11pm Monday night, when a man came out of the house with a rifle and started shooting.

"It would appear to be that we're common thieves, but our job is to fully ID ourselves and make a debtor aware we're here to pick up a vehicle," Van Dress said.

He told deputies he identified himself, but the man still fired at him, leaving the repo agents little choice but to get out of the way, and off the property.

"I'm not allowed to carry a firearm as a repo agent," Van Dress explained. "If I did, that would be a breach of peace."

"All we have is a flashlight and our hand," said RDA office manager Sharlee Walker. "So if somebody is shooting at you-- my life is not worth the repo. See you later, buh-bye, I'm gone."

Van Dress' managers says tough times in other industries have made it busy in the repo business. They're taking in about 70 to 80 cars a week right now, almost as twice as many as usual this time of year.

"I feel sorry for the people we have to go to take their vehicles, because they're families, they have kids."

Walker says while hard times for others are good for their business, it also keeps their agents busy and at risk.

"The laws are working against us," Van Dress said. "Some things have to change to make our jobs safer."

The Lee County Sheriff's Office says there are no charges yet against the man who fired at the two repo agents. The truck owner's wife told deputies he didn't hear the men say they were repo agents. But Scott Van Dress says he plans to press charges either way.

Michael Vick Gets A Taste - Indiana

2007-10-03T13:56:00.001-07:00

An Indiana bank sued suspended Atlanta Falcons quarterback Michael Vick for not repaying loans involving a car rental business.

1st Source Bank of South Bend said in a federal lawsuit it suffered damages of at least $2 million because Vick and Divine Seven LLC of Atlanta had refused to pay for the vehicles. The lawsuit seeks unspecified damages.

Last week, the Royal Bank of Canada sued Vick in federal court in Virginia for more than $2.3 million that it said he had planned to use for real estate investments.

Vick pleaded guilty to a dogfighting conspiracy charge in federal court last month and was indicted Tuesday on state charges in Virginia related to the dogfighting ring. He faces up to five years in prison on the federal charge when he is sentenced Dec. 10. He also has been indefinitely suspended by the NFL.

A message was left Friday at the law firm representing Vick in his criminal cases.

Vick signed loan agreements as the chief financial officer of Divine Seven, which bought at least 130 vehicles, including many Kia Spectra and Ford Taurus cars, through 1st Source Bank loans, according to documents filed in U.S. District Court in South Bend on Wednesday.

A phone call Friday to a number listed on loan documents for Divine Seven was answered by a clerk at a Payless Car Rental office in Atlanta. The Associated Press left a message there for Art Washington, who signed some of the loan documents as Divine Seven's CEO.

According to the lawsuit, 1st Source Bank made a written demand for payment Aug. 24, but Vick and Divine Seven have "failed and refused to pay."

The bank has been able to repossess most of the cars, which will limit Vick's financial liability in the lawsuit, said John Griffith, the corporate counsel for 1st Source Bank.

The lawsuit said Vick and the company agreed to their first loans with the bank in January, about three months before authorities began investigating his involvement in a Virginia dogfighting operation.

The Stuff We Find In Cars! - Florida

2007-10-03T13:51:00.000-07:00

An Orlando repo man helped Lake County detectives solve a theft at a construction site. It happened at a new development off Hartwood Marsh Road.

When the trunk of the repossessed car was opened, thousands of dollars in stolen goods were found and now investigators say the owner of the car has a lot of explaining to do.

"Once we opened that trunk, that's when we struck gold," said repo man Tony Volta.

Not gold, but brass actually, a trunk stuffed with stolen goods and apparently the tools needed to commit the burglary.

"There was actually a whole bunch of fitting valves, plastic piping, there was a cordless drill, saw and bolt cutters," said Sgt. John Herrell, Lake County Sheriff's Office.

The equipment was taken from the Sandy Lake County construction site. The brass filled valves are lucrative at recycle shops and can bring in quick cash for criminals, just like copper.

"Anything that can be recycled is a hot commodity at this point. It's considered a target. I'm not surprised," Herrell said.

Maybe the only one surprised was Volta. Working on a tip, the repo man found the car up to its tires deep in sand. The car's owner is the only one missing now.

Lake County detectives said Jeffery Van Vorst is a person of interest in the theft. He's the owner of the car and, while he has not been arrested for the, Van Vorst has an extensive criminal history involving drugs, grand theft and trafficking stolen property. Volta calls the crime almost perfect.

"The car was loaded, they were ready to go, but the car at some point got struck in the sand dune and that was it," Volta said.

Representatives from the construction company would not talk on camera but said they do have problems with thefts in Orlando. Detectives said they did make contact with Van Vorst and he claims he let his girlfriend drive the car. She maintains she was out of town when the burglary occurred.

Boy Jumps From SUV

2007-09-09T16:27:00.000-07:00

AURORA - A Naperville boy was slightly injured after jumping out of a sport-utility vehicle that was being towed by a repossession company, authorities said.

Fashawn Parker, 4, was sitting in the back seat of a Ford Excursion on Thursday when a crew approached, hooked up the car to a tow truck and began driving away, Aurora police spokesman Dan Ferrelli said.

Fashawn opened the door and jumped out into a construction area, Ferrelli said. The truck was in slow traffic because of construction, and the boy suffered only minor injuries.

Judge Gets Slapped In Ole Miss.

2007-09-09T16:25:00.000-07:00

JACKSON - A recommendation that Leflore County Court Judge Solomon Osborne be suspended for 90 days without pay and assessed more than $2,500 has reached the Mississippi Supreme Court.

The Mississippi Commission on Judicial Performance made the recommendation on Osborne. The case is among dozens the Supreme Court will hear in the September-October term.

In late March, a federal jury ordered Osborne to pay former repo man Chris Reed $80,000 in compensatory and punitive damages in connection with an incident in 2002. The commission has alleged that Osborne failed to "observe the high standards of conduct required of a judge by making a public spectacle on the streets of Greenwood while impeding the repossession of an automobile."

The car was a Mercedes registered to Osborne's wife and mother-in-law and parked at the judge's law office. At the time, according to the commission's report, payments on the car were around $3,000 in arrears.

Once Reed left the scene, Osborne and another man, Tennie Benford, pursued Reed in Benford's vehicle and, at one point, cut Reed off. According to the commission report, Osborne beat on Reed's vehicle repeatedly.

Osborne abused his power, influenced the actions of police and demeaned the judicial office, the commission said.

From Florida

2007-08-29T14:30:00.000-07:00

BRADENTON -- Months ago, Jerry Camp told a jury about a morning when a man in slacks marched up to his house with court papers and said he was taking the Cadillac Escalade in the front yard.

Camp said he was terrified, puzzled why his luxury sport utility vehicle was being seized and unsure whether the man was a genuine Manatee County deputy sheriff. Camp held an unloaded gun over his head in the hope he could buy time until the police arrived.

But the jury could not decide whether Camp was guilty of improperly exhibiting a firearm, a misdemeanor, and the judge declared a mistrial. Camp, 73, then rejected a plea deal, wanting a new jury to decide his case.

On Thursday, when Camp returned to trial, taking the same seat on the stand as he did in January, a panel of five women and one man found consensus. They declared Camp guilty after about two hours of deliberations. Sentencing was deferred.

Central to the prosecution was the state's position that Camp knew there was a real officer in his yard and that Camp angrily and carelessly armed himself with a pistol that morning in January 2006.

"This didn't happen in 1850s' Wild West," Assistant State Attorney Tony Casoria said. Casoria said Camp put lives in danger that day.

But Camp's attorney, Mark Lipinski, presented a vastly different portrait, saying Camp was a frightened man who acted to defend his property.

Lipinski built a case rooted in Camp's reported fear that he was being robbed by a fake officer. The attorney presented newspaper articles about impersonation cases in Southwest Florida, and he spoke about the rise in violent crime in Manatee County.

Camp, his attorney said, did not point the gun at the man in his yard -- Kent Dodd, director of the sheriff's civil unit -- and he did not wave it around. Camp did not verbally threaten the officer.

"What he did may not have been the smartest thing in the world," Lipinski said in court. "But what he did was not criminal."

Dodd, a longtime officer, never met Camp before pulling up to his house, 5200 block 44th St. E. Dodd drove an unmarked, white Ford Crown Victoria sheriff's car.

Armed with court papers to seize Camp's Escalade because of an unpaid 13-year-old debt, Dodd approached the front door and knocked.

There was no answer. He taped the papers to the door. He called for a tow truck.

Camp soon stepped outside and demanded that Dodd prove he was an officer. Dodd was wearing a sheriff's jacket and had a gold badge around his neck. But he refused to show Camp identification.

Citing safety concerns, Dodd said he did not want to reach into his wallet to fish for his ID.

Camp called 911 twice during the dispute.

"If you have doubts about police officers, you phone 911," Lipinski said. "Jerry Camp wanted help. He wanted someone there."

Camp was up on his payments for the vehicle and said he could not understand why anyone was taking his car.

At one point, Dodd gave Camp an option: Pay $10,000 to satisfy a civil court judgment and avoid having the car towed.

Camp, who runs several day care centers, told jurors he thought he was the victim of a fraud.

"I started to get a very funny feeling that this guy was not a deputy sheriff," Camp said in court.

"I thought they were going to take my Escalade and put a bullet in my head besides."

Dodd walked away, turning his back on Camp. When he looked back, Camp stood in his door holding a gun over his head.

Camp said he intentionally unloaded the gun because he did not want a shoot-out. He said he hoped the appearance of the gun would force Dodd to stop the repossession.

But it only escalated the tension.

Dodd took cover and yelled at Camp, telling him to put the gun down. He called for backup.

Casoria, the prosecutor, said the standoff lasted less than a minute.

Camp walked outside with his hands up after a marked patrol car pulled up.

He was arrested at gunpoint on an assault charge, later reduced to improper exhibition of a firearm.

Longtime sheriff's Deputy Ned Foy testified Thursday that it is standard policy to show a photo ID when a person asks a deputy to see it. Foy was a backup deputy at Camp's house

Way To Go, Georgio

2007-08-23T10:43:00.000-07:00

FARMINGTON - A West Hartford man was arrested by warrant on a drug possession charge Tuesday after the Enfield company that repossessed his car discovered cocaine and a glass pipe in the vehicle when they took possession of it, police said.

A vehicle owned by Georgio Robles, 37, of 80 Vine Hill Road, West Hartford, was taken by an Enfield repossession company July 27 as it sat in the parking lot of Robles' Farmington employer, police said.
A short time later, Farmington police were notified by Enfield authorities that during a routine inventory check of the contents of the vehicle, employees of the repossession company found two small bags of cocaine and a glass smoking pipe, Lt. William Tyler said.
Robles was also charged with possession of drug paraphernalia. He was released on $5,000 nonsurety bond and is scheduled to appear in court Tuesday

From Florida

2007-08-23T10:40:00.000-07:00

STUART — Employees of a car repossession firm were attacked by a truck owner and employees of a local tire store when they attempted to tow the vehicle Tuesday afternoon, according to a Stuart Police report.

Employees of Allen's Recovery were acting on behalf of SunTrust Bank when they showed up at Great American Tire, in the 800 block of Southeast Monterey Road, to tow a 2001 Dodge Ram truck. But when they went to hook up the vehicle to a tow truck, one Great American Tire employee deflated the tires on the Dodge Ram, and another employee parked a second vehicle in front of the tow truck to block the exit, according to arrest reports.

Meanwhile, Stuart resident Terry Allen Brink, 33, allegedly jumped into the tow truck and tried to drive off with it, but he managed to only move about a foot because he was blocked in. His friend, 21-year-old Juvanal Tapia, and an unidentified person allegedly punched an Allen's Recovery employee in the head, according to reports.

The truck owner didn't get involved in the fight and has not been charged in connection to the incident, said Sgt. Marty Jacobson, Stuart Police spokesman.

Brink was charged with felony grand theft auto and Tapia was charged with misdemeanor battery.

From New York

2007-08-21T16:44:00.000-07:00

Maybrook - The westbound lanes of Interstate 84 were closed for about an hour yesterday after an SUV being towed behind a flatbed wrecker caught fire on the highway. The flames spread from the first vehicle, an 2002 Mazda Tribute, onto the flatbed, igniting a second SUV, an ’05 Chevy Trailblazer.
State police and fire investigators could not determine yesterday why the Mazda, being towed by its rear, caught fire around 2 p.m., just shy of Exit 5 in Maybrook.
The driver of the flatbed, owned by Martin Towing in Owego, picked up the SUVs from a repossession lot in Patterson. Police said Ryan Short, 27, of Nichols, was headed for the State Line Auto Auction in Waverly. “He drove for 30 miles or so and then it just lit up,” said Trooper Paul Gladman.
Short pulled off the highway onto the shoulder of the road and tried to douse the fire with his extinguisher. The driver of a tractor-trailer pulled over to help, but as the heat intensified, tires and pieces of metal began popping like gun shots.
An eastbound police officer from the Town of Lloyd was first on the scene, making a U-turn to help stop traffic as firefighters from Maybrook and East Coldenham arrived to extinguish the fire. No one was injured.

Another Child Left In Car/Alabama

2007-08-21T16:43:00.000-07:00

Authorities say a man hired to repossess a vehicle got more than he bargained for Thursday afternoon when he not only picked up a car but an unexpected passenger.

Officials with the Franklin County Sheriff's Office were called to a convenience store just south of Russellville on U.S. 43 around noon Thursday.

Reports indicate a man hired to repossess a car had picked it up at the store when the driver went inside the business.

What the repo man didn't realize, authorities said, was the woman's small child was in a car seat in the backseat of the car.

Deputies said the repo driver said when he started pulling off, he saw the woman running out of the store and then he noticed the small child in the back seat and immediately pulled back around to the store.

Department officials said the repo man ended up repossessing the car, but did give the woman and her child a ride to their house.

From Pennsylvania

2007-08-21T16:39:00.000-07:00

A 74 year old man is facing charges after an attempt to repo his car goes bad. Police were called to Marshall Wilson's home in North Newton Township for a report of shots fired.

Officers say when they arrived, they heard more shots, then Wilson pointed his gun at the officers. He was taken to the Cumberland County Prison.

Florida Man Shoots at Recovery Agent

2007-08-10T17:34:00.000-07:00

A Golden Gate Estates man was arrested early Tuesday morning after allegedly shooting at someone who was repossessing his car.

Bradford Intravia, 30, was charged with aggravated assault with a deadly weapon.

The incident happened just before 4 a.m. at 1060 Desoto Boulevard South.

Deputies say Waldo Baez, 31, showed up at the home with a tow truck to repossess a car.

As he hooked up the vehicle, Intravia's girlfriend looked out of the window and saw what was going on. She told Intravia who then, according to reports, grabbed a rifle and went outside.

Baez told investigators he was in his truck when he heard something behind him. He turned around and says Intravia had a rifle pointed at him. Baez then reported hearing shots fired.

He says he quickly drove away toward Golden Gate Boulevard.

Authorities say Intravia then got into his girlfriend's car and began to chase Baez.

Deputies were called and met both cars a few blocks away in the area of Golden Gate Boulevard and 6th Street NE.

Deputies say Intravia told them he was trying to get Baez to stop so he could get some keys out of his car.

Intravia was arrested and taken to the Collier County Jail.

More Fake Cop Cars...

2007-07-30T09:28:00.000-07:00

A Sherman woman who was stopped, handcuffed and had her car searched by a man impersonating a police officer did not identify the men arrested in connection with two similar cases in Dallas County and Fairfax County in Virginia.

Anna police Lt. Howard Day said Friday that the woman, whose identity has not been released, failed to identify the men in a photo lineup in the two similar but now separate cases.

The woman told police that on July 14, a man in a makeshift police car and uniform pulled her over for a broken taillight on U.S. 75 near the Mantua Road exit, placed her in handcuffs and conducted a search of her purse and her car. She also said he spoke her driver’s license number into a portable radio, but no one talked back, Day said.

The officer took her out of the handcuffs, ordered her to get her taillights fixed and drove away. The woman told police she then realized her taillights were not broken. Nothing of value was reported as stolen and the officer did not harm the woman during the traffic stop, Day said.

The woman described the officer’s vehicle as a white car with police markings on the side and domed, clear red and blue reflecting lights. She also said the officer wore a navy blue or black uniform with a star badge over his left shirt pocket and no other identifying markers or badges, Day said.

Dallas County sheriff’s deputies arrested another man in a similar car and clothing on July 18. Police pulled the vehicle over around 4:30 p.m. on U.S. 20 for traveling at a high rate of speed. He first thought the vehicle was another police officer, but noticed the vehicle had unfamiliar looking insignia and he initiated a traffic stop, according to a statement released by the Dallas County Sheriff’s Office. The vehicle looked as though it was outfitted like any normal police cruiser, but upon closer inspection he noticed the vehicle’s radio was a scanner and the dash-camera was fake. The deputy also later found a separate fake camera on the ceiling and a black BB pistol with orange paint scraped off of the barrel, according to the statement.

The driver, 40-year-old Malcolm Hawkinson, did not present the deputy with the appropriate insurance card and the registration did not match the owner’s information. He was also found to be a registered sex offender and was booked into the county jail on some misdemeanor class C violations and was later released. The owner of the vehicle, whose name was not released, said he operates a repossession company and the modifications to the vehicle were made to ensure the safety of his employees, according to the statement.

The following day, Anna police investigators began looking into a second case in Fairfax County, Va., in which a 17-year-old woman from South Riding, Va., was assaulted by a man claiming to be a police officer, Day said.

The impersonator pulled the unidentified woman over around 11:50 p.m. July 19 in a shopping center parking lot in Chantilly, Va., approached the vehicle and asked her to step out of the car. When she complied, the impersonator pushed her against her vehicle and touched her in an inappropriate manner. She screamed and began honking the car’s horn and the suspect fled the scene. Police later arrested 36-year-old Frank Antia, who was spotted driving a vehicle with police lights and a partially covered Texas license plate, according to a statement released by the Fairfax County Police Department’s public information office.

Day said investigators the Sherman woman did not identify the men in either case as the man who pulled her over July 14.

“We have not identified the driver of that vehicle yet,” Day said.

Day said if someone is being pulled over and is unsure if the officer pulling them over is a real officer, they can call 9-1-1 and speak to a dispatcher to confirm their identity.

“We don’t anticipate any backlash,” Day said. “Our officers are always in full uniform, so hopefully this is a one time thing and this goes away.”

American Equipment Leasing. LLC

2007-07-20T13:58:00.000-07:00

This is my response to Mr. Partridge concerning the post on Repoman.com about American Equipment not paying their vendors:

Author: Dave Branch/The American Repossessor
Subject: Mr. Partridge...

With all of this talk about lawsuits and litigations, I have seen nothing factual in nature. With that being said, would you be so kind as to elucidate the following:

Snap-on Credit, LLC vs. Tyler Partridge - North Carolina #20040067857M

Fifth Third Bank vs. American Equipment Leasing - North Carolina #20050045633K

Sun Trust Bank vs. American Equipment Leasing - North Carolina # 20040104448J

Washington Mutual Bank vs. American Equipment Leasing - North Carolina #20050036029J

And filed just last week, Dealer Services Corporation vs. American Equipment Leasing - North Carolina #20070067443E

While you are ruminating on that, perhaps you can tell us all where you, personally, will be on the morning of August 06, 2007 in Charlotte, County of Mecklenberg, North Carolina and why?

I haven't even cracked the surface of this yet, but smell quite an article brewing. And I haven't even spoke of Florida yet.

Anyone interested may reach me this weekend @ 336-342-7587

Have an outstanding weekend!

Dave Branch

[EDIT] I liked your statement "The only time lawsuits are necessary is when we have to defend what is right".

Recovery Agent Uses Fake Cop Car Is Sex Offender

2007-07-20T01:01:00.000-07:00

The markings on the car were so believable, they fooled real law-enforcement officials.

A Dallas County sheriff's deputy was on Interstate 20 near Bonnie View Road late Wednesday afternoon when he thought he saw a police car zip past him.

"At first glance, he thought it was another police agency on a hot call," said Michael Ortiz, spokesman for the Dallas County Sheriff's Department. "But he took a closer look at the decals on the car, and it wasn't any agency that he had seen before."

The deputy pulled the driver over for speeding. He and others who arrived at the scene soon became more suspicious.

The decals on the car simply said "Dallas, Texas" but were designed in a way that looked very similar to those on sheriff's deputy cars. The driver had a BB gun fashioned to look like a police gun. The dashboard camera was fake and mounted with Velcro. Deputy Ortiz said investigators also found handcuffs, a walkie-talkie and a scanner set to monitor county law-enforcement channels.

Authorities arrested the driver, Malcolm Hawkinson, 39, for having an improper vehicle registration and failing to show adequate insurance. Investigators might file a charge of impersonating a peace officer if they determine Mr. Hawkinson intended to mislead anyone into thinking he was an officer.

Mr. Hawkinson, a registered sex offender, was released from the Lew Sterrett Justice Center on a "promise to appear" citation. Details of that charge were not available. Mr. Hawkinson could not be reached for comment.

Sheriff's deputies called the vehicle's owner, who owns a car repossession business.

"He said he put the decals on the vehicle, but he did it for the protection of his employees," Deputy Ortiz said. "He finds there is less resistance when [people] are approached by someone they think is a police officer."

The Sheriff's Department declined to identify the owner, who was not arrested.

"It's not against the law to possess a vehicle with the insignia," Deputy Ortiz said. "What makes it against the law is how you use it." He noted that the owner was not caught using the vehicle.

By Thursday afternoon, the Sheriff's Department received several calls from women who said they were treated inappropriately during traffic stops. Officials had not determined whether the cases are linked to Mr. Hawkinson.

Authorities also were investigating documents found from the traffic stop.

"There were papers that were drawn up to look like repossession paperwork," Deputy Ortiz said. "They were crimped with some seal and drawn up to look official. We're looking to see if that paperwork is really official [or] whether this was auto theft."

Breach of Peace

2007-07-18T13:52:00.000-07:00

ST. PETERSBURG - The repossession of a 1995 Jeep Cherokee degenerated quickly Thursday and left the vehicle's owner in the hospital and the repo man in jail.

Mick McFadyen, 42, owner of the Jeep Cherokee, was at Bayfront Medical Center in serious condition, though his injuries are not life-threatening.

James Dean Anderson, 44, was in jail on charges of reckless driving, leaving the scene of an accident involving injury and driving on a suspended or revoked license.

It all began about 10 a.m. in the back yard of a home at 4470 57th Ave. N.

Anderson, of St. Petersburg, arrived at the home with Timothy McDevitt, the owner of the car lot that was trying to repossess the car. Anderson apparently got into the Jeep, which was parked in the back yard, and tried to drive it away, said Sgt. Jim Bordner of the Pinellas County Sheriff's Office.

McFadyen jumped in front of the car. So Anderson put it in reverse and began backing toward the west side of the home. McFadyen ran after it and tried to reach into the driver's side window to get the keys. He was run over, with at least one wheel running over his torso, Bordner said.

Anderson then pulled away in the Jeep. He called into the Sheriff's Office to report that he'd repossessed the car, as required by law. By that time, paramedics had arrived and transported McFadyen to the hospital.

A deputy went to Exceptional Car & Truck Sales at 4580 49th St. N. in St. Petersburg to interview Anderson, who admitted his involvement, Bordner said.

McDevitt, the owner of the car lot, said in a phone interview that he did not see Anderson "do anything wrong." But he wouldn't say anything more about the incident.

"I need to talk to an attorney," McDevitt said. "I don't know where I stand in this situation."

Anderson was driving on a suspended license for failure to pay a traffic fine, records show. McFadyen was to be sentenced next week for violating his probation related to an earlier arrest for writing worthless checks.

Florida law says a repossession must be stopped if the owner of the car resists, Bordner said.

"If there is an objection by the owner or a breach of peace, the repossessor has to take civil action," Bordner said. "The law is very clear on this. It's clear what everyone's role is and at that point you have to disengage from the repossession."

Recovery Agent Charged In Death - Houston Update

2007-07-08T13:15:00.000-07:00

Wearing a white T-shirt, gold chain, and khaki baseball cap with the Playboy bunny embroidered on it Alvin Corbello can’t explain what happened fast enough.

"There's not one day that goes by that I just can't believe Glenn's in jail for this," the 40-year-old said.

He is animated, talks with his hands, and speaks fast. Corbello says the last two weeks have been tough mentally after what he experienced.

His friend Glenn Lee Smith, 34, is charged with manslaughter and so far unable to post bond at the Harris County Jail.

Prosecutors believe Smith, a wrecker driver, ran over and killed a Cathy Deemer at a Baytown RV Park on June 23 while repossessing her car. According to the probable cause statement, Deemer’s estranged husband hired Smith to take Deemer’s car “to use as a bartering chip to force [Deemer] to give up possession of a recreational vehicle the husband also owned.”

"Yeah I thought everything was OK,” recalled Corbello. “I thought ‘good.’ Because when you're doing a repo it's kind of scary."

Corbello was also in Smith's tow truck that night. For the first time he told his story to 11News.

Though he heard Deemer yelling and chasing the wrecker, Corbello says he and Smith quickly lifted the vehicle, puts theirs in gear and left like they do for all repossessions.

As they pulled out on to the paved road from the gravel driveway the wrecker shifted, Corbello remembered, and the screaming stopped. He said he thought they had just picked up enough speed to outrun her screams. Corbello said neither man had any idea Deemer had been hurt.

"No! No, no, no. That's not in Glenn's nature and it's not mine either,” he stated emphatically.

Still, Smith faces a felony after initially denying he was involved.

"Even though he may have to do some jail out of this he doesn't deserve a bad title. A bad name. A bad title and he doesn't deserve a bad label to go with this because Glenn is not a bad guy," Corbello said of his friend.

For his part, Corbello isn't in trouble.
Though he can't clear Glenn Smith's name he insists the wrecker driver didn't hurt Deemer intentionally.

Idiot Of The Week

2007-07-08T13:10:00.000-07:00

It was the definition of a really bad day for an Oakdale woman. She parked her car at work, came out later and it was gone.

When the woman told police about it they didn't believe her, because of what the thief had told them first.

"He notified the Bloomington police department he was going to repossess a car. Then he went out and stole the car," said Doug Johnson, Washington County Attorney.

But when the car finally turned up in Maplewood, the suspect's con game was revealed.

It started in a Bloomington parking lot for Health Partners. The woman found only an empty space where she had parked her car. While she was at work, the car thief was busy. He was calling police.

"It was different. I can't say it was creative, because it didn't work," said Johnson.

Investigators say Donald Alexander Steele was acting as a repo man. He copied the woman's VIN and license plate number, got himself a key and told Bloomington Police he'd taken possession of the woman's minivan and took off.

"He got stopped here in Washington County where he was charged with possession of stolen property which was the car, and also for stealing the car."

"I don't know how my uncle could do that to somebody," said Amanda Schnagl, Steele's niece.

Schnagl says she kicked him out a year ago for running a scam out of her house.

"He goes around to find a car to drive around for a couple of weeks," she said.

The owner of Kia Auto Sales says he worked with Steele in the past, and thought his repo business called W.I.T. Recovery was legitimate, until a few years ago.

"He was stealing money from customers. He was going to make a deal with customers," said Moe Kia of Kia Auto Sales.

Prosecutors and people who knew Steele say he would repossess a car, then hold it for ransom. Investigators say he told his latest victim he'd give her back her minivan if she paid him $640.

The County Attorney says Steele's essentially kidnapping cars, but maybe not this time. His next hearing is on the July 17.

Steele's criminal history includes convictions for forgery and domestic abuse among other things. Johnson says people who think they may have been Steele's victim in the past should call police.

Twist To The Story

2007-07-07T07:54:00.000-07:00

A father and son are in Wilson County Jail after a car repossession led first to gunfire, then fisticuffs and finally criminal homicide, according to a sheriff's detective.

Willie Clyde Mooneyham, 56, is charged with criminal homicide. His son, Zachary Mooneyham, 27, is charged with aggravated assault.

John Wayne Gribbins, 36, the repo man, is dead.

According to Wilson County detective Lt. Ricky Knight, the series of events began when Gribbins, of Vesta Road in Wilson County, went to repossess Zachary Mooneyham's vehicle Thursday afternoon in Rutherford County.

"Shots were fired by Willie (Mooneyham)" during the repossession, Knight said.

Gribbins took the car anyway, and he returned to his residence in Wilson County.

Confrontation heated up

Thursday evening, Zachary Mooneyham went to Vesta Road and confronted Gribbins, Knight said. "There was a physical altercation between Gribbins and Zachary there," he said.

"A short time afterward, Willie shows up at the same location and they (Gribbins and the elder Mooneyham) got into an altercation using vehicles as weapons and guns as weapons," said Knight, adding that the only gun in the car fight was apparently Willie Mooneyham's.

"John Gribbins was struck by the gunfire," said Knight of the man who died after the 8 p.m. shooting.

An all-night manhunt was launched and with the help of Rutherford County Sheriff's Department officers, Willie Mooneyham was arrested at his residence about 7 or 7:30 a.m. Friday.

Metro police assisted in arresting the son, who was discovered Friday afternoon at his girlfriend's home in Nashville.

Bail has been set at $5,000 on Zachary Mooneyham.

No bail has been set for Willie Mooneyham.

Yet Another Recovery Related Death

2007-07-06T16:27:00.000-07:00

Nashville, Tennessee

A Rutherford County father and son face charges in the shooting death Friday of a Wilson County wrecker driver, said Wilson County Sheriff Terry Ashe.

Father Willie Mooneyham, 57, of 7574 Couchville Pike in Rutherford County is expected to be charged in the shooting death of wrecker driver John Gribbins, 37, of Lebanon, the sheriff said. Mooneyham’s son, Zach, was expected to be charged as an accessory to the death.

“All this is over the repossession of an old Jeep with the value probably less than $500,” Ashe said.

When Gribbins repossessed Zach Mooneyham’s Jeep, Willie Mooneyham allegedly shot at Gribbins, the sheriff said. Later, Zach Mooneyham showed up and got into a fight with Gribbins at his home. Willie Mooneyham was accused of shooting Gribbins in the head with a shotgun and possibly a handgun. Two other people witnessed the shooting.

Wilson County officers asked Rutherford County deputies to apprehend Willie Mooneyham at his home.

Rutherford Sheriff’s Detective Troy Hooker said the Felony Apprehension and Search Tactical team was activated about 4:30 Friday morning. Deputies surrounded the home while FAST members tried to get Mooneyham to answer the door. When he refused, they entered the home with a search warrant.

“He was in the bedroom,” Hooker said. “He was alone.”

Mooneyham was taken into custody. Patrol officers found a shotgun on the porch.

Ashe said the shotgun was the one believed used in the shooting. A handgun was located too.

Metropolitan Nashville Police helped apprehend the son in Nashville.

Ashe said he appreciated the help from Rutherford County sheriff’s office and Nashville Police.

Another Recovery Related Death

2007-07-06T11:30:00.000-07:00

Greenwood, Indiana

A Greenwood man was killed in a car wreck early this morning after he sped away from a man trying to repossess his car, according to a police report.

Robert R. Parks, 54, crashed into a utility pole after speeding through a curve and losing control of the 2006 Chevy HHR he was driving near the intersection of Peterman Road and Smith Valley Road. He was pronounced dead at the scene of the accident.
The Johnson County Sheriff's Department gave the following account:
About five minutes after police arrived on the scene shortly after 2:15 a.m., Diversified Recovery agent Richard Young came upon the accident. He told police that he had been hooking the rear wheels of a blue 2006 Chevy HHR onto a lift at Friendly Village trailer park and was about to drive off when he saw some movement and the brake lights of the vehicle. The car then was driven off the lift and through the trailer park at a high rate of speed, the agent told officers.
The agent told police he was going to proceed to his next recovery and drove southbound on Peterman Road when he came across the accident scene involving the same blue 2006 Chevy HHR.
Police identified the driver as Parks, the name of the person whose vehicle Young was supposed to recover.
A coroner drew blood for a toxicology screening as part of the accident investigatio

Teaxans and Car Payments

2007-07-02T15:53:00.000-07:00

Texans love their cars and trucks – but apparently not enough to keep up with their loan payments.

Credit bureau Experian released a report in June saying that Texans had the lowest average Experian credit score – 592 – for people with at least one late auto loan payment.

The score range is 330 to 830.

The national average credit score for consumers with no late auto payments is 703, while the average score for consumers with at least one late payment is 605.

Texans with no late auto loan payments had an average credit score of 679.

Experian has conducted previous studies on this issue, but the figures can't be compared because the sampling methods are different. The data for the current report was gathered in April.

"The large glaring reason is that delinquencies in Texas [in auto loans] tend to be higher," said Peter Bolin, manager of analytics at Experian.

Thirteen percent of the Texas population with auto loans had at least one serious delinquency – such as a charge-off or vehicle repossession – on their credit reports. The national average is 9 percent, he said.

In Dallas-Fort Worth, the average credit score for consumers with no late auto loan payments was 680 vs. 590 for those with at least one late payment.

"The point to consumers is, here's an example of how once you're late on your auto trade line [auto loan], look at what happens to your score," Mr. Bolin said.

Another Shooting

2007-07-02T15:49:00.000-07:00

A repossession man was reportedly shot at by a man with a shotgun this morning while trying to hook a Lincoln to his flatbed truck, police said.

George Edwards, 37, of Syracuse, was working with two other men from Auto Tech Repossession just before 12:45 a.m., recovering a 2002 white Lincoln LS at 116 Burnet Ave. when the incident occurred, Sgt. Tom Connellan said. Nobody was hurt.

As the workers backed the truck up to the car, a man stuck his head out of a second-floor window and ordered them away from the car. They noticed he had a shotgun pointed at them. When the man racked the shotgun, the three men got into the car to leave. Then, they heard the blast from the gun, Connellan said.

Kim Orr, 36, of 648 Gifford St., came out of the building with the gun, got into the car and drove off, Edwards told police. Moments later, police found Orr and the car in a garage in the 4200 block of South Salina Street. Orr was charged with felony counts of reckless endangerment and criminal possession of a weapon and also was charged with three counts of menacing.

David Smith Funeral

2007-07-02T15:47:00.000-07:00

The funeral for a man shot and killed on a Lexington street Thursday night while he was repossessing a car was held Monday morning.

David Smith, 45, died of multiple gunshot wounds while repossessing a car for Cars R Us, located on Leestown Road, on Laredo Drive in south Lexington at about 7:30 p.m. Thursday.

Brandon Robinson, 20, of Lexington is charged with murder and tampering with physical evidence. Robinson allegedly opened fire on the car, smashing out the back window. The car then crashed into a tree.

Smith's funeral was held at the Kerr Brothers Funeral Home on Harrodsburg Road in Lexington at 10:30 a.m. Monday.

Robinson's bail was set at $253,000. He is being held in the Fayette County Detention Center.

Houston Update

2007-06-26T10:21:00.000-07:00

By ROBERT CROWE and ANITA HASSAN

The last time Oda Soileau tried to take his property back from his ex-wife, sheriff's deputies had to come out to the Lazy Acres mobile home park to stop their fighting.

"Every time I had a confrontation with her, I would lose," Soileau said Monday.

So when he decided to take back the 2001 Mercury Grand Marquis he had given Cathy Deemer, Soileau hired a wrecker driver to do the job.

But Deemer, 53, didn't hesitate to fight with a stranger either. She died Saturday night outside Baytown trying to stop the tow truck from taking her car, Harris County Sheriff's Office investigators said. She was apparently dragged a distance and sustained a serious head injury.

"We didn't get along, that's no secret," said Soileau, 60. "Who intends for something like this to happen? I didn't."

Investigators following an anonymous tip found the wrecker driver at his home about 24 hours after the incident, said Lt. John Martin. The wrecker driver, whom Martin declined to identify, initially denied any involvement, though he later acknowledged the truck was his, Martin said.

"He claims he had no idea she had been struck by the vehicle or injured at all," Martin said.

No charges have been filed against the driver and the case will likely be referred to a grand jury, Martin said.

Wrecker drivers are required to notify the Sheriff's Office before repossessing a vehicle, in case the owner tries to report the repossession as a theft, Martin said. But such advance notification isn't necessary when the owner hires a wrecker to tow his own vehicle, Martin said.

Soileau and Deemer's love-hate relationship spanned four decades and included two tries at marriage that ended in divorce, most recently in 2004. They have two grown children together.

Terri Nichols, Soileau's adopted daughter from another marriage, said Deemer was a very close friend she considered a mother figure. The women often spent time together discussing the Bible.

"She was a good, Christian woman," Nichols said.

Woman Goes For Ride

2007-06-25T20:25:00.000-07:00

By Karla Barguiarena

It’s unlikely Gerald Mayfield will ever forget what he witnessed just a few feet from his home near Baytown Saturday night.

Mayfield witnessed a suspicious white tow truck parked near his mobile home as if it was staking out the neighborhood.

Minutes later, he heard his neighbor screaming.

“I heard her screaming no, no, just screaming at the top of her lungs and they turned the corner there I mean just as fast as can be,” Mayfield said.

It was unclear exactly how the accident happened, but that woman somehow became caught on her car or the wrecker and dragged for several yards.

The woman noticed the wrecker towing her car away from her trailer and went after it.

Harris County sheriff’s investigators say the woman suffered severe head injuries and died at Methodist San Jacinto Hospital.

They are working to determine if the wrecker driver was stealing the woman’s car or if he was repossessing it.

However, no order to relinquish the car was ever filed with the county, a requirement for repossession.

“Cruel. She didn’t deserve it. She wasn’t that type of person,” friend Karen Wolfe said.

Wolfe said the victim was one of the few friends she could count on.

As she helped investigators gather the victim’s two beloved dogs, Wolfe said she hopes the driver either turns himself in or “finds a heart.”

The latter may be the only way to learn who was behind the wheel of the truck, since no one can identify him.

“I wish I would’ve looked at some markers on the vehicle, but I didn’t. I didn’t notice any,” Mayfield said.

Authorities were withholding the woman’s identity pending notification of family members.

No description of the wrecker or the suspect has been released.

FIND THIS GUY!

2007-06-16T15:31:00.000-07:00

Springfield, MO.

The Douglas County Sheriff?s Department is asking for helping locating a Norwood man charged in a shooting incident.

Richard C. Hight, 55, has been charged with second degree assault, unlawful use of a weapon and armed criminal action in an incident where he fired a gun three times at repossession agents in the early morning hours of May 15 outside his home in rural Douglas County, the sheriff?s department said.

There is an outstanding warrant for Hight on these charges.

Anyone who knows Hight?s whereabouts is asked to call the Douglas County Sheriff?s Department at 683-1020.

Recovery Agents Get Award

2007-06-13T14:04:00.000-07:00

Repo Men Get Life-Saving Award For Saving Woman
Pair Honored In Aurora

(AP) AURORA, Colo. It's not often that the repo man is called a hero.

But brothers Heath and Kyle Main, who make their living repossessing vehicles, were honored by police Monday for using their towing equipment to lift a 3,500-pound car that had flipped and pinned a woman.

The Mains were on their way to tow the first of nine vehicles the night of May 14 when they came upon the wreck, which had pinned Arleen Meyer, crushed her pelvis and broke her left arm.

Several other people, including former Lt. Gov. Joe Rogers, had stopped but were unable to move the car.

It took the Main brothers only seconds.

"You've got to be fast when you hook up a repo," Heath Main said.

The brothers left before anyone knew who they were, and they came forward only after public appeals by police.

Police gave the brothers Outstanding Citizen Life-Saving Awards. Meyer was still hospitalized and could not attend the ceremony, but her husband, Duane, said she wants to meet the Mains when she is able.

AND WE WONDER WHY WE HAVE A BAD IMAGE

2007-05-28T20:41:00.000-07:00

By The Patriot Ledger

A frightening incident last week and the arraignment of a pair of Brockton brothers has brought an ugly and little-regulated underbelly of credit collection to the forefront.

We wonder what possessed the Simeone brothers of Brockton to apparently think they were in a Martin Scorcese film. Had they watched too many episodes of ‘‘Dog the Bounty Hunter?’’

Jumping on the hood of a car, terrorizing a young mother with a 5-year-old in the backseat, allegedly assaulting the woman, all in the name of repossessing a seven-year-old Ford Focus when the owner fell three weeks to a month behind on her car payments?

Sara Bradley of Rockland admits she could not make her weekly $85 car payment to Crown Auto Sales after she lost her job as an accounting clerk. She said she notified the dealer but never heard back.

James Stuart, Crown’s general manager, said he unleashed the repo men, Robert J. Simeone Jr., 21, and his teenage brother Michael, after Bradley went into default last month.

The Simeones were apparently doing work for their dad, Robert Simeone of South Shore Auto. Riding with four teenage friends, they spotted Bradley in East Bridgewater, allegedly tried to reach in and yank her or the keys out, and gave chase through three towns before Robert Simeone Jr. jumped on the hood of her car and she drove into the Abington police station’s parking lot with the man still attached to her hood.

Bradley, understandably, said she thought she was being carjacked. While Stuart claimed the whole process was legal, Massachusetts general laws may take issue with that.

One of the statutes outlining repossession, Chapter 255, section 13J ( we looked it up so we assume others can as well), says a creditor can reclaim collateral on a defaulted loan ‘‘only if possession can be obtained without use of force, (and) without a breach of peace.’’

The brothers were hit with an array of charges including assault and battery with a dangerous weapon in East Bridgewater and Abington and held.

‘‘Any semblance of common sense was completely lost as emotions escalated, putting a 5-year-old through that type of scare as her mother was confronted,’’ Abington Police Chief David Majenski said after the incident.

No one is saying people should be allowed to stop paying their bills. You are granted credit and with it comes responsibilities and consequences when you can’t hold up your end of the bargain. There are, however, regulations on how that delinquency should be handled and they include rights for the buyer.

When a teenager and someone barely above the legal drinking age act as unlicensed bounty hunters, it’s time to rethink the system.

Officials at the Executive Office of Consumer Affairs, the Executive Office of Public Safety and the Attorney General’s office said there are no statutes governing repossession companies or their employees save for a few requirements like not using force, not entering someone’s home and notifying police within one hour of taking possession of property.

They are unlicensed, unregulated and untrained yet they are empowered to recover collateral for a price. We regulate and license people to cut your hair, massage your back and put on your makeup but anyone with a scary physique and questionable background can be employed to take away someone’s car without warning.

The Legislature needs to look at these retail installment agreements but foremost, lawmakers have to put the lasso around these repo cowboys who have little regard or even knowledge of responsible collection actions.

Soldier's car repossessed while deployed to Ira

2007-05-13T11:17:00.000-07:00

By Gene Rector

Clayton Jenkins of Montezuma has a federal law on his side, but his beef with an Oglethorpe used-car dealer is far from clear cut.

Macon County Auto Sales repossessed Jenkins' 1996 Chrysler Concord in May 2005 while the 48th Brigade member was deployed to Iraq. No one disputes that. And an Army attorney has said the "buy-here, pay-here" dealership violated the Service Member's Civil Relief Act. That has owner Mark Neisler in potential hot water. But then the details get murky.

Jenkins said Neisler repossessed his car for no valid reason.

"I had paid $1,500 down and we were caught up on all payments," the Blue Bird employee said last week. "My wife took the May payment down there that morning and Neisler refused it. He didn't give her any explanation. Then that night, he came and got the car."

Information Jenkins provided to Fort Stewart attorney Russell Putnam Jr. shows the Army specialist purchased the car in December 2004 for $3,850. He paid $1,600 down and made four monthly payments of $250 before it was repossessed.

Jenkins' wife, Monica, described the confrontation with Neisler when she attempted to deliver the May installment.

"He was very rude," she reported. "He asked me to get off his property. I told him we only had three more payments to go and he said, 'You're right, but I've decided I'm not going to accept anything from you.' "

The Allen Canning Co. worker said Neisler's motives were clear to her: "He just wanted to confiscate the car and keep the money."

She said the repossession created severe hardships for her and five children. Her husband had deployed four months earlier. Two of the children were ill and needed frequent medical attention. She was suffering from migraines and was in and out of doctors' offices and the emergency room.

"I had a lot of problems about that time," she confided. "I was really going through a lot of things and had no transportation for anything, including getting food for my kids. I had to pay someone or catch a ride."

Neisler offered a different view during a Thursday telephone interview. He implied that Jenkins was using federal law and his deployed status to avoid paying for the car.

"Nobody offered to pay off the car," he contended. "They were three payments behind or it wouldn't have gotten repossessed. I told them if they paid it off, they could get it back. They said they didn't have to pay if off. That's the way it ended. They cussed me out and called me every name in the book and said they would never buy anything from me."

Neisler said he has sold the Jenkins family three or four cars and has never received payment.

"I again tried to help them and see what that got me," he stated. "I'm a good person trying to help somebody. Yet I'm a bad person for taking the car. What about me getting my money? What about my family eating?"

He said he didn't know what the big deal was regarding the federal law and Jenkins' deployed status. "I don't care where he was," Neisler acknowledged. "If you don't make your payments, your car gets repossessed."

Neisler said another Macon County used car dealer, Larry Wilson, experienced similar problems with Jenkins. Wilson, owner of Cars R Us, said Jenkins bought two cars from him and did not pay for either one.

"He left me owing quite a hunk of money. I repossessed one and I could never find the other," Wilson contended. "I would never sell him another car."

Jenkins said his family has bought only two cars from Neisler - the one repossessed while he was deployed and a vehicle his wife bought two years ago.

Monica Jenkins confirmed the purchase, but said the deal fell through when the car developed engine problems.

"I had the car three or four days and (Neisler) assured me he would get his mechanic to work on it," she said. "He never did fix it. I was the one who called him to come and get it."

As for Wilson, Jenkins said he purchased one car that was later repossessed after he missed one payment. Monica Jenkins dismissed Wilson's comments: "Of course he's going to say that because he and Neisler are close friends."

Army attorney Putnam said "money owed" has little impact on laws protecting deployed members of the military. Documents issued by Putnam indicate creditors are forbidden from "repossessing for breach of contract ... without a court order."

The Fort Stewart official said he notified Neisler of his failure to obtain a court order by telephone and in a Dec. 12, 2005, letter. The car dealer denied receiving a phone call and was vague on receipt of a letter.

"No Army attorney has called me," he asserted. "I got some kind of letter but it was no good. Jenkins had one of his friends write it on Army letterhead just to scare me."

Putnam confirmed Thursday that the Dec. 12 letter - obtained by The Telegraph - was valid. "That's my signature," he said. "I sent it first class, return receipt requested. (Neisler) took the car in violation of federal law."

The letter contained a $10,000 settlement offer if executed by Jan. 3, 2006. Neisler did not respond. Putnam said violation of the statute can result in a fine, imprisonment for not more than a year, or both.

Jenkins has had little success in pursuing his claim since returning from Iraq in June of last year. Putnam referred the case to U.S. Attorney Max Wood in Macon, who declined to prosecute. Wood cited "limited resources," according to Jenkins. When asked why he would not help Jenkins, Wood issued a "no comment" response Thursday through an assistant.

The 48th Brigade member said his next step would be to file an action in Macon County Magistrate Court. "My Warner Robins attorney advised me to represent myself first and if (Neisler) appeals then get an attorney," he said. "He has not responded in any way." Jenkins said he would ask for $10,000, including pain and suffering.

Another option might come with the U.S. Justice Department. That agency regards violation of the Service Member's Civil Relief Act as a civil rights issue.

Neisler said he is guilty only of trying to help Jenkins. "I helped them when they were tight and needed a car," he said. "I didn't want to sell them another one, but I did any way. I took a chance and I got screwed. That's what this whole world is about it seems like. Somebody always has a loophole."

DOMAINS FOR SALE

2007-05-12T10:08:00.000-07:00

I have two (2) domains that I have available for sale.

The first is www.TheUARA.com

The second is www.RepoSpotter.com

Interested parties should email me at Dave@davebranch.com

Be sure to add "Domain" in your subject line and make an offer. I will accept any decent offer.

From Virginia

2007-05-04T20:22:00.000-07:00

In the dark of night, they come. Taking people's prized possessions.

They're not thieves.

They're repo men risking their own lives!

Over two nights, we rode with Bill's Recovery in Newport News and Summs Skip and Collection Service in Virginia Beach. Two companies with the same goal, to get that vehicle without getting grief from owners.

Bill Chenault and his drivers, including his 19-year-old son, begin the night at the kitchen table that doubles as Bill's office. It's just before midnight, and it's just the start of a seven hour shift. Between the three of them, they'll repossess ten cars before daylight, but it won't be easy.

"The joy I get out of it? It's a challenge," Chenault said.

Bill's been a repo man for 17 years, and he knows night time is prime time. The professional repo drivers, we're talking the pros, can find that car, and grab it. Forget gone in 60 seconds; try 10. Bill says the best of the bunch don't need to carry a gun.

"A lot of us repo companies out here choose to carry a firearm, if you're good at what you do, you don't really need it," Chenault said.

However, you do need steel nerves and a steel resolve. It's 4:00 a.m., and we're in Williamsburg. Bill's picking up a car. He just woke up the owner. Now the owner has to clean it out and give up his car in the middle of the night. That's bad enough without a camera crew in tow. And when he sees us, things get interesting.

"I don't care who they are! Get them out of here! It's 4:00 a.m! People are asleep! What the F&%$ you doin'? Get them out of here!" said the unidentified owner.

"He admits he's in the wrong there." Chenault explained. "'I should have had it cleaned out and put on the street.' But he said nobody showed up at nine, so he left the stuff in his car. That's kinda foolish."

Bill says people are sometimes desperate to keep their cars.

"This guy jumped the curb, ran over the curb, ran down Jefferson (Avenue), ran through stop lights, stop signs, even went by a (school) bus with the sign out. You know, why put some child's life in danger?"

If Bill Chenault is the rock-n-roll repo tow man, then Mark Summs is the symphony. If Summs Skip and Recovery isn't the biggest repo company in Hampton Roads, then it's probably the oldest. It opened in 1932.

"Somebody comes out with a gun and starts shooting. That's when it's time to leave," said Mark Summs.

Summs has a fleet of nine trucks that are so efficient, the company picks up 400 vehicles every month. Though thier personalities are different, both Chenault and Summs agree the economy is in a slump.

"Based on the first quarter of 2007 vs. 2006 we're picking up more cars."

One of Mark's drivers Mike Clark, says people will hide their cars anywhere to try to keep them.

"There was one in Franklin that I found in a cornfield finally, Clark said.

As night draws to a close, Bill on the Peninsula and Mark on the Southside have grabbed ten cars between them. About an average take. With a profit of $450 per vehicle, it makes us wonder, if we're in the wrong business.

WHY YOU SHOULD ALWAYS REPORT

2007-04-26T19:47:00.000-07:00

RICHFIELD, MN -- It was a scary few minutes for Teneil Vaughn and a buddy, when they were pulled over earlier this week by police with guns drawn. Police let them know the car they were driving was stolen – and Vaughn knew it was all a mistake.

Vaughn’s mother bought the car at Car Hop in Richfield to give to her son. Luckily, Vaughn had the papers to prove he had the car legally, but the question arose – what was going on?

Turns out, the car had been purchased by Car Hop from a city auction. The car’s owner had reported it stolen last year, but in actuality, the car had been repossessed. Confusion which could have been avoided if the repossession had been reported to police, as most are.

Car Hop has been in contact with Vaughn and his mother, saying they’ll refund their money plus a little extra for their trouble.

Police say this is a very unusual situation. They recommend running a check on the title of any cars purchased.

ANOTHER STOLEN TRUCK USED?

2007-04-11T19:55:00.000-07:00

Danielle Steele Brown says she replays the last few minutes of her husband's life in her mind almost every night. Over and over again, she sees it: the shadowy figure standing near the tow truck that took her husband's car early one morning six months ago, the flash of gunfire from the truck, her husband's body crumpling to the ground.

She says she has gone over every minute of the shooting a thousand times, wondering when the killers would be found, whether justice would ever be served.

Yesterday, Steele Brown said justice seemed within reach after the early morning arrest of a Prince George's County man who police say is one of several involved in the slaying of her husband, Raymond Brown.

"It's been the longest six months of my life. I feel like at least now there's a little bit of peace," said Steele Brown, 34.

Police charged Neiman M. Edmonds, 19, with second-degree murder yesterday in connection with the fatal shooting of Brown, a well-known music engineer who was killed last year after his car was stolen by men in a tow truck.

The slaying occurred about 2:30 a.m. Oct. 13 in Mitchellville after Brown, known by many in the music industry by his professional name, Scottie Beats, chased down men in a tow truck who he believed were attempting to steal his Chrysler 300.

Sources familiar with the investigation said Brown, 36, was shot at close range when he confronted the driver and two others in the tow truck, while two accomplices watched from a nearby car. The sources spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the investigation.

Steele Brown said she watched in horror that night as a man inside the truck wordlessly fired at her husband. Before she knew it, the tow truck was gone, and she was left holding her husband as he lay bleeding on the pavement a few hundred yards from the newlywed couple's home in the 600 block of Stillwater Place.

"It's a nightmare. You spend most of your time trying to block that image out of your head, watching the most important person in your life taken away from you when it could have been prevented," Steele Brown said.

"The last words he heard was me telling him I loved him."

The slaying shocked many in the quiet, middle-class Lake Arbor neighborhood where Brown lived. It also raised questions about the county's emergency call system.

Before the shooting, Brown called 911 to report that his car was being towed, but dispatchers told him to call back later.

Days after the shooting, county authorities placed three Prince George's emergency communications workers on administrative leave after an investigation revealed that they had apparently treated the incident as a repossession and had not followed procedure.

Yesterday, police said Edmonds was arrested without incident about 8:30 a.m. in the 5400 block of Blaine Street NE in the District. He remained in police custody late yesterday.

The sources said more arrests are imminent.

The sources familiar with the case said Edmonds might have been one of two men seen waiting nearby in a Cadillac when Brown confronted the tow truck driver near the 11000 block of Southlake Drive after the Chrysler was taken from his home. Neighbors reported seeing the tow truck and the Cadillac circling the area minutes before the shooting.

Police would not say whether Edmonds shot Brown.

Edmonds was indicted on a motor vehicle theft charge in January 2006. The charge was later dropped.

Shortly after the slaying, police said it was unclear whether the Chrysler had been stolen or had been targeted for repossession. Several sources with knowledge of the case, however, said that investigators believe the black, crane-type tow truck was stolen by a five-man car-theft ring hours before the shooting from a man who operates a private towing business in Prince George's.

Greg Lattimer, an attorney for Steele Brown, said neighbors had called authorities about several car thefts in the area before the fatal shooting, including one a day earlier in which a tow truck fitting the description had been seen taking another resident's car.

No Respect In Singapore Either

2007-04-10T12:34:00.000-07:00

After damaging repo man's car and calling the judge 'cute', bankrupt with violent mood swings is sentenced

Leong Wee Keat
weekeat@mediacorp.com.sg

HER sports car was going to be repossessed but Wong Nguek Chin was reluctant to part with the Mitsubishi Lancer Evo VII.

So the 45-year-old climbed on repo man See Song Chang's car and started jumping up and down. Not only did she damage the sunroof of Mr See's car, but she also scratched the bonnet and bent the wipers.

For that, Wong was fined $2,000 by District Judge Eddy Tham yesterday.

Taken to court on a private summons, District Judge Tham found that Mr See's lawyer, Mr G Dinagaran, had "proven their case beyond reasonable doubt".

Wong, a bankrupt, chose not to pay the fine, and spent a day in jail instead. She was facing a jail term of up to two years and a fine.

Wong, who tried unsuccessfully to find a counsel yesterday to represent her, said in mitigation that she had numerous problems with both her mental and physical health. She said she was suffering from injuries to her spine and lower abdomen.

Wong also appeared subdued yesterday, a vast contrast to the brave front she put up during the three-day trial, which took place last month.

Wong repeatedly asked irrelevant questions during last month's hearing and was told off by the judge. She also wrote a card to the judge, addressing him as "dearest" and gushing that she liked his "cuteness and sweetness".

But District Judge Tham was unmoved and sent her to the Institute of Mental Health (IMH) for three weeks.

Yesterday, an IMH psychiatrist's report was submitted to the Court stating that and she was diagnosed to be suffering from schizoaffective disorder — characterised by manic depression and violent mood swings.

Wong pleaded for leniency and also apologised to the court for "wasting its time".

In sentencing her yesterday, District Judge Tham took note of her mental condition but stated that he was "shocked" by Wong's act of mischief.

While Mr See was pleased that justice was eventually served, he told reporters outside court that the legal proceedings could have been avoided — if Wong had accepted his request of an apology and footing the cost of repairs, which amounted to $2,400.

"Repo Men"? I Think Not.

2007-04-10T11:54:00.000-07:00

DAYTON, OHIO: Two repo men reported aggravated menacing while they were repossessing a vehicle from the 400 block of Kammer Avenue.

They got it out of the driveway, rolled it down to Shenandoah Drive but couldn't start it.

The female who had possession of the vehicle and her boyfriend came to that location. The boyfriend had a knife and threatened the complainants. The female stated she was going home to get a gun.

Police went to her residence, where she told them the men had no right to take her car. The boyfriend wouldn't come out. The complainants were ordered into the prosecutor's office.

At $75 a Pop, No Wonder...

2007-04-07T09:03:00.000-07:00

HALIFAX - A local vehicle dealership was bilked out of $20,000 over a five-month period in a check altering scheme, according to the Halifax County Sheriff's Office.

Three people were charged Friday with a total of 20 counts of obtaining property by false pretense, Detective Bobby Martin said this morning.

Martin said the crimes were committed against Rheasville Truck and Auto Sales. The three suspects were working for the company doing repossessions.

The three - Stevie Pitt, Shreeta Robinson and Michelle Pitt all of Roanoke Rapids - received checks for their work but once the checks were received they were altered and cashed for several hundred dollars more than they were written for.

For instance, if a check was written for $75, an additional number would be written in front of the first number. The checks were handwritten.

Martin said the fraud began in August and continued until the first of the year when the company discovered problems in bookkeeping and began looking for discrepancies.

Stevie Pitt was charged with 16 counts and jailed on $15,000 bond, Robinson was charged with three counts and received a $5,000 bond and Michelle Pitts was charged with one count and jailed on $1,000 bond.

The three of them all have May 23 court dates.

REPOMAN ARRESTED IS SEXUAL PREDATOR

2007-03-25T10:09:00.000-07:00

TROY — March 22: A male was reported sitting in a vehicle and watching the courthouse at Short and Water streets with binoculars. The subject was exiting the vehicle when deputies approached. Two filet knives in sheaths were sticking out of a compartment in the driver's door. He was asked to step up onto the sidewalk. The subject reached into his vehicle and picked up a cane. He was asked to leave the cane in the vehicle. The subject told deputies he brought some friends to the courthouse. He also said he works for a repossession company and saw a vehicle that looked like one he was trying to repossess. The binoculars were used to see if it was the same vehicle, according to the subject. The cane was found to have a concealed 18-inch stiletto blade inside. He was arrested for carrying a concealed weapon and transported to jail. The subject had prior arrests. He's also a registered sexual predator on parole in Ohio.

Editor: We will try to find out who this person is and what company employed him

EDIT:Man arrested was 48 year old Donald R. Milby from Dayton, Ohio. View his predator listing HERE.

EDIT: Bilby still sits in the Miami county Jail (Ohio) over the weekend on a $10,000 bond.

Repo's a dirty job, but somebody has to do it.

2007-03-18T16:08:00.000-07:00

By: GIL SPENCER, gspencer@delcotimes.com

03/18/2007

So, I'm getting my haircut Friday at the Media Hair Stop and the owner, Diana, asks me if I'm writing about anything interesting.

It's a fair question.

I don't claim everything I write is interesting. I shoot for about 50 percent, which in column writing and softball (.500) is a pretty good average - at least for a guy my age.

So I tell her about Peggyann Warder and the truck she just had repossessed by Chase Automotive Finance.

I tell her about how her husband, Jim, died and how the truck was in his name but that she'd kept up all the payments right up until the time Chase hired a repo company to snag it in the middle of the night. Now she was trying to get it back.

"She kept up all the payments?" Diana asks.

Yeah, I tell her.

"That's like stealing," she exclaims.

Well, I say, no, not exactly. Because the truck was not in Peggyann's name, the bank probably had the legal right to take it.

But why would it? They were getting paid. They were cashing her checks. I say I called Chase and wrote it all up for Friday's paper.

"It still sounds like stealing to me," Diana says.

So again I try to explain the legalities of the repossession business, when she stops me. It turns out me telling Diana about the repo world is like telling Ryan Howard how to hit a baseball. She and her husband, Bob, owned a repo business until very recently.

"I could tell you some stories," she says.

"Tell me," I say. "And a little more off the top."

The best one involved a minister in Philadelphia. Bob went to repo his car during a Sunday church service.

According to Diana, "He had the entire congregation chasing him around the car. They were saying they would pay whatever the minister owed, all proud of themselves. But my husband said he couldn't do it."

They wanted to know why not.

"Because it's not his car," Bob told the crowd. "It's his girlfriend's car and she wants it back."

"They didn't like hearing that," Diana says. "Especially the minister's wife."

The worst one was when Bob called over to a woman's house to find out where she was. When he was told she was at the hospital delivering a baby, he scammed her relatives into telling him which hospital. Then he went over and grabbed her car out of the parking lot.

"While she's having a baby!" Diana says. "Even I told him that was pretty low."

Diana says Bob liked his work.

"He was into the adrenaline rush."

It takes a special kind of person.

"You can't believe the number of people who come running out of their houses, naked, with guns," she says.

But for her husband, those days are over.

She sold the business a couple of months ago after Bob, an Army reservist, was sent to Iraq.

Talk about a repo job! We repo'ed the country from Saddam Hussein and his Baathist thugs and turned it over to... well, right now, it's a little hard tell who we've turned it over to.

But Diana says, based on the e-mails she gets, Bob likes the action.

"When bombs go off he says he runs toward them. It's the same thing, the adrenaline rush."

With Bob's blessing she sold the business (two trucks, computers and the office equipment). It was a side business anyway. When he's not in Iraq, Bob is an an army Unit Administrator up at Willow Grove.

And she's got the Hair Stop.

"How's that?" she asks turning me toward the mirror.

"His hair was perfect," I say.

She brushes me off, takes my money and I leave.

When I get home, I call Peggyann. I ask her if she knows the number of the repo firm that has her truck.

She mentions a guy named Patrick whose been very nice to her at the yard where the truck is being held.

"Funny you should call," she says. "I just got off the phone with him."

She says Patrick called to tell her that he'd just received a call from the president of Chase Automotive Financing.

The president told him to return her truck to her "today," the sooner the better.

"He was calling from Arizona or someplace and didn't know about the ice storm here," Patrick told her.

He asked the president if he could return it over the weekend or even Monday, because he really didn't want to send a truck out into all the ice.

I call Patrick to confirm what Peggyann tells me, but he won't. He cites some law that forbids him from discussing any details of business to third parties so... "I am going to hang up now. But I will tell you you did an excellent job." Click.

I call Chase's media person Mary Kay Bean who confirms the truck is going to be given back to Peggyann and that she will not be charged anything for the repossession.

I say I'm glad it all worked out.

And Mary Kay says, "So am I."

Now, if Bob makes it back from Iraq in one piece that will be a real happy ending.

PILOT ERROR BLAMED IN REPO CRASH

2007-03-07T12:13:00.000-08:00

By Doug Wilson

Herald-Whig Senior Writer

Investigators from the National Transportation Safety Board say pilot error led to a fatal crash while a foreign military jet was being repossessed on behalf of a Quincy company last year.

Stephen Freeman, 32, of San Diego was flying too low and didn't follow instrument landing procedures, according to NTSB staff. The jet Freeman was piloting lost power, and Freeman died after ejecting at low altitude Jan. 25, 2006. The L-39 Albatros military jet crashed in Ketchikan, Alaska, causing minor injuries to five people on the ground.

The NTSB report indicated Freeman hit the water in the Tongass Narrows moments before the crash. The plane bounced off the water repeatedly with the landing gear down. A Ketchikan flight specialist radioed Freeman to abort his landing after hearing from another pilot that Freeman was over water.

Investigators say water damaged the jet's engine, causing it to lose power.

Don Kirlin of Air USA, a Quincy company, employed Freeman and helped prepare the Czech-built jet for flight when he and a team repossessed four planes that were being bought by Security Aviation Inc. of Anchorage and Palmer, Alaska.

Security Aviation has sued Air USA over the incident, and Kirlin also is suing Security Aviation.

Kirlin said Tuesday he could not comment on the situation because of pending court action. He directed calls to a mechanic who previously worked for Security Aviation and helped Kirlin with repossession of the jets.

John Berens, former chief mechanic for Security Aviation's L-39 Albatros program, said NTSB reports indicate that Freeman told air controllers the jet was icing up as much as 19 minutes before the crash. Berens believes that might have contributed to the plane hitting the water.

Berens said the main parachute did not have a chance to engage because Freeman ejected at a low angle after directing the plane toward a gravel parking lot.

Kirlin and Berens said Security Aviation has consistently misrepresented the repossession as a theft of the airplanes.

Cracking down on car title pledge lenders

2007-02-10T20:53:00.000-08:00

By MARC PERRUSQUIA
Friday, February 09, 2007

Out of work after an auto accident, Anita Gray needed cash to pay her bills. With nowhere else to turn, she pawned her car to Golden Title Loans, where repayment rates reach 264 percent a year.

Borrowing $1,000, Gray paid Golden Title more than $4,000 over the next 18 months _ more than she'd paid to buy her used, 1997 Saturn in the first place.

And still she owed $1,200. The principal never went down despite paying $220 a month _ and that didn't include a number of late fees and other penalties.

"They're ripping people off," said the 40-year-old hair stylist who sued Memphis-based Golden Title for alleged gouging.

Gray is one of three plaintiffs named in the Shelby County Circuit Court lawsuit that Memphis Area Legal Services hopes will galvanize support to reform practices among Tennessee's car title pledge lenders.

As a second prong in that strategy, the Memphis and Shelby County Anti-Predatory Lending Coalition has drafted a bill in the General Assembly. It would trim fees that title pledge lenders can charge.

"It's an industry that really preys on desperate people," said Legal Services attorney Webb Brewer, who likened title pledges to "evergreen loans" that keep rolling over month after month.

"They've got to come up with $220 every month just to keep from losing their car."

Golden Title owner Doug Golden has said his firm operates legally and ethically, but he wouldn't discuss developments. "I'm just not going to make any comment on that," he said.

Under state law, car title lenders can charge monthly fees of 2 percent interest and a 20 percent administration fee _ 22 percent a month _ when a borrower pledges the title of an automobile as collateral.

The bill being filed by state Sen. Roy Herron and Rep. Larry Turner would limit the 20 percent administration fee to the first month.

After that, lenders could charge only the 2 percent interest a month. Also, after three months, a portion of what the borrower pays would be applied to lower the loan principal.

Herron already has filed a bill this session that would limit the number of months that a title pledge loan can be rolled over. He said he hopes the best aspects of the bills survive and become law.

In addition to the monthly fees, Golden Title has charged customers late fees and other penalties for "calling off" a planned repossession. With the aid of internal business documents, The Commercial Appeal first reported those practices by Golden Title in 2004. A consumer advocacy lawyer told the newspaper then that he considered the late fees and call-off fees to be illegal because they weren't spelled out in loan contracts.

In the suit filed Wednesday, Legal Services lawyers contend that late fees and call-off fees charged to Gray and others are illegal because they exceed the 22 percent-a-month cap. Golden Title also is violating the Tennessee Consumer Protection Act by engaging in unfair and deceptive acts, the suit alleges.

Following the 2004 articles, Legal Services filed a complaint with the state against Golden Title, but there was a problem: The Department of Financial Institutions had no authority to regulate title pledge lenders. That changed with legislation passed in 2005 that allows DFI to conduct periodic examinations of title pledge lenders.

Bogus Lawyer - Real Defaults

2007-02-10T20:46:00.000-08:00

New York Attorney General Andrew M. Cuomo announced today that Broome County’s William Slote, who is not an attorney, will return more than $5,000 to southern tier residents who hired him to perform legal work.

Mr. Slote, who did business under the name “Repo Justice,” traveled to local courts in Broome, Chenango, Tioga, and Cortland counties to obtain records identifying the names and addresses of consumers who were being sued for defaulted automobile loans. He then approached these consumers with offers to represent them for fees of up to $225 for investigation and preparation of legal papers. His defenses were rarely, if ever, successful.

“Unqualified and untrained individuals posing as licensed attorneys present a threat to the well-being of those they profess to protect,” said Attorney General Cuomo.

As a result of the settlement, Mr. Slote has agreed to refrain from soliciting clients or drafting legal documents. He will pay $5,400 in restitution to the 38 consumers he charged for his services, and he will pay a civil penalty of $2,000. In addition, Mr. Slote has agreed to pay restitution for any other consumers who file complaints with the Office of the Attorney General that show they paid Mr. Slote for legal services.

Consumers with complaints about William Slote or Repo Justice are encouraged to contact the Attorney General’s Consumer Helpline at (800) 771-7755.

This matter was handled by Assistant Attorney General Michael J. Danaher, Jr. of the Binghamton Regional Office, with the assistance of Senior Investigator Jon Wescott, and under the supervision of Dennis C. McCabe, Assistant Attorney General in Charge of the Binghamton Regional Office.

Source: New York Attorney General's Office

Dodge Rolls Heavy Duty in 2008

2007-02-07T14:05:00.000-08:00

Dodge has good news from the big show in Chicago for those wanting to become repo men, or just need fill the convertibles of their enemies with paving stones. The new and tougher than ever before Dodge Ram 4500 and 5500 sport an improved 6.7-liter Cummins turbodiesel that kicks out 610 ft lbs of torque at a mere 1600 RPM. A choice between a six-speed manual or automatic puts all that twist to the wheels and gives this series best in class first gear acceleration. The largest brake rotors in the class help put on the whoa. Best of all you can tow around that puny consumer Dodge Ram on the back of this commercial tougher brother for 350K before major service is required.

Full press release

Repo man gets more than he bargains for...

2007-02-04T11:35:00.000-08:00

NEWTON, Mass. -- A repo man in Newton gets more than he bargained for when he tries to take back a man's car.

Police say 64-year-old Lionel Porter repeatedly bumped the repo man as he tried to tow porter's BMW.

The victim - who's from New Hampshire - had asked the police to seal off the street so he could do his job. He was checked out at a hospital but wasn't hurt apparently.

Police say Porter has a suspended license, but still took off in the BMW - he was arrested a bit later.

Watch the VIDEO

Repo men face on-the-job dangers

2007-02-04T11:31:00.000-08:00

On any given night, repossession companies pick up about 100 cars from San Antonio streets, alleys and driveways.

For employees of Prime Time Adjusters, every night could be an adventure. Under the cover of nightfall, they move in to get their target and move out — all in a matter of seconds.

"I gotta support my family just like everyone else does," repo man Leroy Rodriguez said.

They have to be prepared for anything to happen.

"He has put the threat of violence out there to us, that he's going to do whatever it takes to keep the vehicle," repo man Mike Waldron said.

Waldron has been repossessing vehicles for 18 years, and there's nothing he won't repossess.

"I've picked up Lamborghinis, limos. I've repossessed even livestock," Waldron said.

The business is dangerous, and there's one thing he will not do: work alone.

"I been shot, stabbed, hit with a bat, and sliced with a box cutter," Waldron said.

The repo business can be dangerous, and that is why they work in teams.

"You're not bullet-proof when you're out here. You always got to watch your back," Rodriguez said.

This is how a vehicle is repossessed:

First, field investigators find out where the vehicle is kept.

Next, tow truck operators make their move late at night in either a conventional tow-truck or a hideaway truck. The hideaway trucks are regular pickups, like a Ford 250 Supercrew, except there is a towing mechanism hidden in the bed of the truck.

"We don't break (and) entering, break into garages to get a vehicle. There's laws and guidelines we have to follow in the state," Waldron said.

The circumstances behind why people fall behind on their payments and lose their cars range from divorce to health issues to unemployment. Taking a car from someone who has fallen ill sometimes makes it hard for the men to do their job.

"When they come out and tell you their life story, you can't get attached," Rodriguez said.

Security Service Federal Credit Union handles about one in four car loans in the San Antonio area. They say less than 1 percent of debtors actually become delinquent, and they do everything they can to work out an alternate payment plan.

MINUTE MAN WHEEL LIFTS

2007-02-01T07:05:00.000-08:00

Welcome to Steve Kerr and Minute Man Manufacturing as our newest sponsor and the Official Wheel Lift System of The American Repossessor.

Please vist their website to see why the Minute Man is the most versatile Self loader on the market.

Phony cop steals motorcycle?

2007-01-25T17:35:00.000-08:00

PATTERSON TWP. - Patterson Township police think a man falsely identifying himself as a state constable stole a motorcycle valued at $30,000 under the guise of repossessing it.
According to Patterson Township Police Chief Rich Cindrich, Michael Grimm, the owner of a 2001 Harley Road King, had fallen behind on payments, and had been given a deadline of Jan. 19 to catch up on the payments or have the vehicle repossessed.
Grimm told police that on Jan. 18, two men came to his St. Tropez Circle home, one wearing a sidearm and a T-shirt bearing the words "PA state constable."
That man told Grimm that he was there to take possession of the motorcycle, Cindrich said, and Grimm let the men take the bike and keys.
Cindrich said he wasn't sure whether either of the men showed Grimm any paperwork saying that the motorcycle was being repossessed.
Grimm, however, was angry at Harley representatives, feeling that they lied to him, and he called to complain that they had repossessed the motorcycle a day early, only to be told that they hadn't repossessed it, Cindrich said.
Cindrich said he also contacted a repossession agency out of Columbus, Ohio, that Harley uses, and they said they hadn't made arrangements to pick up the bike either.
Cindrich said he also checked with other repossession agents in the Pittsburgh area, and no one knew about the motorcycle.
The motorcycle had been customized, Cindrich said, and was lowered by 2 inches, had its gas tank stretched to the seat, and was painted with purple tint pearl, which is purple paint with red and blue flakes.
Cindrich said he didn't know how someone would know that Grimm's motorcycle was being repossessed. He added that Grimm would not benefit by having the motorcycle falsely reported stolen, because insurance money wouldn't come close to covering the value of the motorcycle.
Grimm could not be reached for comment Wednesday.
Anyone with information about the motorcycle is asked to call Patterson Township police at (724) 846-8400 or (724) 775-0883.

Repo man retires with stories - and his life

2007-01-12T10:59:00.000-08:00

By ROBERT FRANKLIN / McClatchy Newspapers
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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.”

Repo man vs. rifle in Yonkers

2007-01-12T10:51:00.000-08:00

By WILL DAVID
THE JOURNAL NEWS

YONKERS - A 33-year-old Yonkers resident pulled a 9mm rifle on a man who was legally repossessing his car for non-payment, city police said today.

The resident, Chris Cicero of 1332 Midland Ave., was later arrested by police Officer Gerald Spano, Yonkers Police Lt. Diane Hessler said.

Police gave this account:

At 10 last night, the 24-year-old employee of Traxx Recovery Service placed a boot on a wheel to immobilize the white 2004 BMW 545 four-door sedan in the garage in the apartment building at 2 Louisiana Ave., Lt. Hessler said.

He then went up into the building and told Cicero, who was in his brother's apartment there, that he was repossessing the car. Hessler said Cicero at first agreed to allow him to take the car.

But then Cicero went into the the garage with a rifle and threatened the victim with it. The repossession agent left and called the police, Hessler said.

Cicero was arrested and charged with third-degree criminal possession of a weapon, a felony, and second-degree menacing, a misdemeanor.

WELCOME RE-PROS

2007-01-04T12:34:00.000-08:00

Welcome to Re-Pros.com as the Official Recovery Software and Data Management of The American Repossessor.com.

Your Government At Work

2007-01-02T09:40:00.000-08:00

Recovery Company Owner Feels Run Over

Bill Valdez lay on his back under hundreds of cars for many, many years to get his business established in Rock Springs. In the early days, he rented shops that had no running water. Even when he finally did work his way into a three-business complex on A Street, he still worked through lunch.

"This business is all about timing. You have to be there when someone walks in the door," Valdez said.

When the Wyoming Department of Transportation and the city of Rock Springs planned A Street improvements, they decided Valdez's building must go to make room for a turning lane and a grassy area. Valdez said the building wasn't for sale.

In 2005, the city initiated eminent domain proceedings to take the building that housed Valdez's three businesses -- Performance Auto Sales, Valdez and Co., and Performance Repo Services. It was appraised at $150,000, but the actual cost to move into something comparable was more than $500,000, according to Valdez.*

Then Valdez discovered there's a cap on how much a condemning entity has to pay to cover the costs of relocation: $10,000. The appraisal process didn't seem fair, either, said Valdez. In fact, nothing about being condemned seemed fair.

"I don't feel the government should have the right to force you into debt," Valdez said. "I'm not asking for a handout. Just don't take my livelihood away."

Man charged in threat against repossession agent

2007-01-02T09:34:00.000-08:00

A repossession agent got more than he bargained when he tried to repossess a 2002 Ford Explorer, state police in Sidney said.

A Smithville man was arrested for allegedly threatening the agent with a shotgun as the agent tried to reclaim the vehicle, police said.

Philip C. Neilsen, 34, was charged with second degree menacing, a misdemeanor, and issued an appearance ticket before the Smithville Town Court, police said.

Recovery Truck Recovered

2006-12-28T15:55:00.000-08:00

Rick Hill the Repo Man has his truck back. The tow truck was stolen last week and it resurfaced on Wednesday.

The truck turned up in the parking lot of Sapp Brothers in Council Bluffs. It's worth nearly $40,000.

Hill's co-workers say they believe a Channel 6 News story on the stolen vehicle Tuesday helped with the recovery.

Larry Kreissler says, "Maybe somebody didn't realize what they took and didn't realize how much it was worth, decided they needed to get rid of it now as soon as they saw the story because someone would be looking for it."

The tow truck had a little bit of damage and had only 40 miles added to the odometer.

No one has been arrested.

Recovery Truck Stolen

2006-12-28T15:52:00.000-08:00

A heartland man has fallen victim to thieves but his sense of humor remains intact. The Repo Man has lost his truck.

Rick Hill says, "We're the ones who come to take people's cars. We are the middle man."

Rick the middle man, aka the Repo Man says, "It's a very hard job - not as easy as people think it is. A lot of people just think, pardon the expression, we're dumb tow truck drivers."

Hill says he feels a little embarrassed after what happened to his tow truck last week.

"They are diesels," he explains. "We have to go out and start them up to let them warm up. I always carry an extra key in my wallet so I lock it up and leave it running."

Hill says someone broke the lock and took off.

"I hear my truck back out of the driveway. I walk outside and there goes my truck down the street without me in it."

Even though Rick Hill's tow truck is four-years-old it's still worth $35,000 to $40,000 and replacing it would cost twice as much.

He says, "People basically stole my livelihood from me, my wife and family."

For once in the past five years in the business, Hill finds himself caught in the middle.

"We're doing it legally," he says. "But someone comes and does it illegally. I guess it's a karma thing."

Hill says his tow truck stands out because there are only a few out there in the Omaha area. It's a black Ford with the logo TPT&T Inc. on the side of the tool box.

The company does have insurance but would rather recover the tow truck.

Temecula, California

2006-12-22T10:48:00.000-08:00

Authorities on Friday searched for an "armed and dangerous" suspect who threatened to shoot a man who was repossessing his truck in an unincorporated portion of Riverside County near Temecula.

Efren Rubiano Anaya allegedly pointed a gun and threatened the man in the 43000 block of Los Caballos at 9:22 a.m. Thursday , according to the Riverside County Sheriff's Department.

When authorities arrived, Anaya fled on foot into the hills that surround the area, authorities said. No injuries were reported.

Deputies searched the area on foot and with a helicopter, not finding Anaya but recovering a small-caliber handgun. It was not immediately clear if it was the gun Anaya pulled during the incident.

Anaya was described as about 5 foot 8 to 5 foot 10 inches tall with a thin build, dark hair and a thin mustache. He was last seen wearing a light- colored shirt and blue jeans, authorities said.

"Efren Anaya should be considered armed and dangerous and extreme caution should be exercised if he is contacted," according to a department statement.

REPO ALASKA

2006-12-22T10:14:00.000-08:00

Stealing a car isn't as dangerous or as difficult as you might think. So say Alaska repo men - and they are men - who steal cars for a living, as well as trucks, motorcycles, snowmachines, ATVs, boats and airplanes. For them, stealthily driving away in a car, sometimes right out of the would-be owner's driveway, is as routine as a letter carrier delivering mail, a bartender mixing drinks or a doctor peering in ears.

When someone fails repeatedly to make payments on a loan for a car or other property, the lender usually will try to recover it. That's where the repo men enter, often with a tow truck, sometimes, for protection, with a gun.

Some debtors surrender the property quietly. Repo men call that a “voluntary repossession.” When it comes to the most stubborn or elusive debtors, however, folks who have been notified several times of an overdue debt and still have not made payments or surrendered the property, the repo men must perform their work more surreptitiously. That's when they sneak into driveways in the dark and hitch a vehicle to a tow truck or hotwire its ignition, hoping the debtor or the debtor's dog doesn't wake before they're gone.

“You're a legal thief,” says Ken Lee, collections manager at the Anchorage Cal Worthington Ford dealership. “You're basically stealing a vehicle from a debtor.” And that, Lee says, is a “rush.”

In his 28 years of repo work, Lee says he's twice had a gun pulled on him. Once a man in his underwear ran after him down Tudor Road, he says, as Lee drove away in the man's car. Lee, who's worked for Worthington since 1985, says debtors rarely become confrontational when the repo man comes, but when they do, the stakes soar. Some repo men like the thrill of that, he says, and some “don't want any confrontation at all.” In any case, he says, the repo man cannot take it personally - “it's just business.”

For Lee, “business” has entailed, among still other things, the time that he and a partner were following a Thunderbird in Anchorage. They'd been searching for the car for two months, he says. Now they had it in their sights. The driver pulled over.

“He was running ladies,” Lee recalls, and he was “jittery,” and “we were like, 'Let's confront him.'”

Then the pimp in the Thunderbird leveled a gun at Lee's partner, he says - at his partner's crotch.

They retreated and got another repo man to follow the Thunderbird. They found out where the pimp was parking it, Lee says, and snatched it that night.

Another time, another job: Lee was trying to get a Ford F150 back from a farmhand at Point MacKenzie. It was the middle of the night, he says. As he started the truck's engine, he woke the farmhand's dogs. The dogs went nuts.

“I saw a light come on. As I'm speeding out the driveway, I heard a shot, and just kind of lay down and got out of there. Nothing hit the car, so I'm pretty sure he shot into the air...

“You go into an area that's off the beaten path, they're a little different. They're pretty protective of their home turf.”

Lee guesses that 20 to 25 percent of the debtors he's dealt with were either confrontational or tried to hide their ostensible property.

There are some popular misconceptions about repo men, Lee says, but in fact, most repo men prefer not to use aggression. They try to give a debtor as many chances as possible to either pay up or surrender the disputed property. “If they would just communicate, the problem would go away,” he says.

When a delinquent account goes to collections, the first step, Lee says, is to start making phone calls. Using personal information compiled by the lender, he calls home phones, work phones, cell phones - any numbers for the debtors that he can get. If that doesn't work, and he's looking for a car, he'll go to the debtors' workplaces, searching for vehicles. If he strikes out there, he'll go to their listed home addresses. He'll check to see if they still live there, peering at names on mailboxes, talking to neighbors. If they've moved, he starts calling references from their loan applications - parents, friends, siblings. “Basically, you're doing detective work,” Lee says, trying to ascertain the debtors' habits.

Most debtors are not inclined to violence either, Lee says. “Most of your people don't have guns or weapons, although, he says, they “might get in your face and scream at you.”

Their pets are a different story, Lee says, which is one reason he carries pepper spray. Carrying a gun, he says, is just inviting trouble. If the situation is so dangerous that he needs one, he says, it's too dangerous. “You can call back pepper spray, you're not going to kill them. You can't call back a bullet.”

“Everybody that knows me knows I carry a weapon,” says James, a youthful-looking, 29-year-old repo man in Anchorage who agreed to be interviewed on the condition that his real name not be published.

“I'm pretty good with my guns, I practice a lot,” James continues. “I hope to never use one on someone. I have no desire to kill somebody, I don't want to kill somebody” - but, he says, “I have a desire to protect myself and use my constitutional right.”

James maintains that people in Alaska are more likely to be armed than people in other states. Like Lee, he also says that people who live in less developed areas are more likely to use their arms. He's had guns pulled on him most often in the Mat-Su Valley and on the Kenai Peninsula, he says.

“If they're shooting at you here in Anchorage, they're usually too drunk to hit the broad side of a barn door.”

James was in the Valley the first time he was shot at on the job, he says. “I hot-wired his car and drove off and heard this 'dink! - dink, dink.'” He says he was a few miles down the road when he stopped to check the car and noticed fresh bullet holes.

On the dashboard of James's tow truck, a box of nine-millimeter Remington shells sits beside a stack of about 20 manila folders that contain debtors' names, addresses, phone numbers, criminal records and other data. Each file represents a vehicle that James is seeking. One lists a debtor's conviction for first-degree murder.

Today, James has been shuttling cars he's already repossessed from one of his four secured lots to Dealers Auto Auction, near 88th Avenue, where, every Wednesday, they're sold to licensed car dealers from around the state. The lenders sell some repossessed vehicles. About 90 percent of the rest are auctioned at Dealers, says president Steve Sautner, who started the business in 1994. Dealers sells about 50 repossessed vehicles a week, he says, which compose about a quarter of his sales. James has been dropping them off there all day.

James is at one of his car lots, a fenced-in area in Midtown. He's going through a black Dodge Neon with a flat tire. “The reason they have flat tires is, people run from us. What I do is, if you keep running and running and running, I'll take the valve stems out of the tires.

“I will take your car. It doesn't matter how, but I will get it.”

He removes clothes and other possessions. “You have to hang onto their stuff for 30 days before you can throw it away,” he explains.

James backs the Neon out of the snow surrounding it and lines it up with the “stinger,” a special T-shaped hydraulic lift on the back of his $70,000 tow truck. Then he's off to the auction lot.

Once, he says, he saw a car he'd been looking for when it pulled out right in front of him. “I motioned for 'em to pull over. I told 'em they had a flat, and then I gave them a flat - I pulled the valve stems off.”

James says the yank-the-valve-stem trick is one of his favorites. Another tactic he says he uses is the gift-certificate-fake-out: He calls the debtor pretending to be in charge of a local promotion, offering $50 in free groceries if the debtor will meet him at a grocery store. He really does shell out 50 bucks for the gift certificate.

“We'll give 'em the gift certificate,” he says, laughing, “and they'll go in to buy their $50 worth of groceries while we're stealing their car.”

Ken Lee says he once used a fishing pole with a steak on the end to lure a dog out of the front seat of a car he repossessed. Another time, Lee was trying to repossess a car the debtor chained to a tree - so he cut the tree down. The vehicle happened to be on state property near Willow, and at the time, Lee says, getting a woodcutting permit was simple. The firewood was a bonus.

The repo business can be exciting, entertaining, and intense, says James, but, like any other job, it can get old. “It's a lot of fun to steal your first few, but after a while you're like, 'If they would just pay their bills...'

“But then I'd be out of a job.”

“This time of year, people tend to overspend because of Christmas,” says Ken Lee. “Your repossession numbers tend to go up.”

It's not just Christmas that derails people's finances, of course. Divorces, layoffs, sickness, lack of discipline and a dozen other reasons can cause people to miss a loan payment, or two or three. Life can sneak up on them, says James, adding that a lot of the people whose vehicles he takes aren't bad, necessarily. Yet James also says that in most of the cars he repossesses, he finds drug paraphernalia or drugs. Sometimes, he says, debtors will track down a repo man to try to get their drugs back, although they don't try to recover the vehicles.

There are times “where I do feel sorry for them, like single moms where it's their only vehicle,” says James, who has two kids. “I've paid for groceries out of my own pocket.

“Mostly I feel sorry for the kids, because the kids shouldn't be a victim of their parent's stupidity.”

James recently picked up a truck on a voluntary repossession. The debtor depended on his snowplowing business and hadn't had much snow this year. James punched the man's address into the Toshiba laptop that sits atop the center console in his tow truck, found directions, and drove to the house, where he recovered a gray Chevy pickup with little fanfare.

“This one seemed like a nice guy,” he said when he was done. “I mean, he gave me both sets of keys and left a quarter-tank of gas. That says something.”

Many down-on-their-luck folks are easygoing, James says, which can ease the repo man's task. Some can be jerks, however, he says, or “high-profile,” as he calls them, and then James doesn't feel bad at all for taking their wheels.

“'High-profile,'” he says, with a laugh, “means they're known for being huge assholes... I've thought about charging an asshole fee.”

James says he's also repossessed vehicles owned by millionaires. “They've got enough money on paper to pay for it six times over,” he says, but they're so over-extended that they can't make payments. “I've repo'd a Mercedes Benz out of the Providence Hospital parking lot.”

Steve Sautner, at Dealers Auto Auction, concurs: he's sold many high-end vehicles that were repossessed, he says, including several tricked-out Humvees.

“A lot of people think when the economy's bad and people are out of work is when you're going to have more repos,” Sautner says.

“In the repossession business, when the economy's good is when you have more repos, because the banks have more money to lend.”

There are only a handful of repo operations in Alaska, says Sautner: Four or five in Anchorage, two in Fairbanks, and one in Juneau. Repossessed cars in Juneau often head south on ferries or barges, he says, but most of the cars repossessed from the rest of the state end up at his auction lot. Lee and James say most Alaska repo men work all over the state.

“We go statewide,” James says. “I don't care if it's in Nome or Nikiski. I don't care if it's in Barrow - we'll get it.”

James says he's repossessed three cars in a single day from Fairbanks by flying one-way to Fairbanks and driving the vehicles back to Anchorage, one after another. “They even blacked out my credit card because I was burning up so much gas.”

Repossessing vehicles from remote communities creates challenges unique to Alaska, James says. Getting a car out of some villages means waiting until rivers are frozen and ice roads plowed. For repossessions in Kodiak, James says he's paid cabbies to locate vehicles for him. When the cabbie spots the car or truck, James says he flies down and gets it back to Anchorage by ferry.

People in villages and other small, remote communities tend to be hostile to outsiders, James says, particularly when a repo man comes calling. “People know who I am out there. They won't pick me up, they won't give me rides.”

The problem with repossessing cars in the Bush, says Lee, is that it can cost more to get the vehicle back than it will raise on a used car lot or at auction. But he says that if someone in a village sees friends or relatives getting away with missing payments, it can spread “like wildfire.” According to Lee, Bush-dwellers will figure, “'Well, if I miss a few payments, they're not going to come out here.'”

James seems to have few qualms about his profession. The money is good and business is booming, he says. For all of the job's quirks, the most demanding aspects of repo work in Alaska seem to be consistent: the danger, the huge gas and insurance bills and the many late nights.

“You just can't get any sleep,” James says. “Most people can't devote 20 hours a day and sleep only four hours. I don't have a problem with that.”

James also doesn't have a problem working holidays.

“Thanksgiving was pretty good,” he says. “We got eight in one night...

“In a perfect world, I wouldn't have a job,” James says. “But this isn't a perfect world.”

Pay Your Bills or Patrol on Foot

2006-12-13T11:13:00.000-08:00

CRYSTAL CITY — This time, it was the police who needed the restraining order.

This South Texas city went to court last week seeking a judge's help to keep a Dallas car dealership from repossessing its fleet of five new patrol cars.

Dallas Dodge Chrysler Jeep told city officials it wants the cars back because Crystal City failed to fill out a lease financing agreement before a Dec. 4 deadline.

The dealer already has made one attempt to seize the cars.

A group of men representing Dallas Dodge showed up at the Police Department last Wednesday seeking to take the cars. The vehicles, however, weren't in the parking lot and the men were instead directed to the city manager's office.

City officials said they weren't sure where the cars were, other than they were out on patrol.

City Manager Diana Palacios said the dealership's internal troubles, including paperwork that wasn't tracked properly, are the real problem. Dallas Dodge is the one that hasn't paid for all of the emergency police equipment that came with the cars and it did not deliver some of the window bars and protective cages, she said.

According to Palacios and the court file, a third party, Cop Stuff, has threatened to file a lawsuit against Crystal City because Dallas Dodge refuses to pay for the equipment that was installed in the patrol cars.

"This really blows my mind," said Donnie Norman, managing partner of Cop Stuff, a Howe-based emergency vehicle outfitter. "This really amazes me. I've been in this business a little over 10 years and I never had someone refuse to pay for something."

Repeated phone calls to the dealership's general manager, Steve Beasley, weren't returned Monday.

A court hearing on the city's lawsuit has been set for 11 a.m. Friday.

Crystal City agreed to buy five 2006 Dodge Chargers from Dallas Dodge in May for five annual payments of $28,673.15 totaling $114,693.10. The dealership delivered the cars Sept. 14.

Norman said problems with the Dallas dealership began recently. He said Dallas Dodge wouldn't give him a reason why it's not paying its bill of more than $11,000 for the Crystal City car work.

Norman said he wants the dealership to pay the debt so his business doesn't have to go after Crystal City's patrol cars. He said Cop Stuff could place mechanic's liens on the vehicles until the bill is paid.

Palacios said on Monday the city can prove the vehicles belong to it because the dealership already has sent it "full and clear" titles to all of them. Copies of the titles were included in the city's lawsuit.

Crystal City officials also filed the first of the five payments the city agreed to give to Dallas Dodge with the lawsuit.

In its lawsuit, the city argues the dealership imposed an unfair application deadline because it waited until the end of November to notify Crystal City that an application needed to be submitted, even though the cars were delivered in September.

Police Chief Luis Contreras said officers wouldn't have been left on foot if the dealership succeeded in repossessing the cars last week.

"We would've gone back to our older ones," Contreras said, referring to a fleet of six 2003 Ford Crown Victorias. "It wouldn't have been the same, but we would have had police vehicles."

Bulletproof...?

2006-12-13T11:10:00.000-08:00

Somewhere out there today is a repo man who is very grateful that the bad guys can't shoot straight. Only one of six shots fired at the repo man early Monday hit him, and that one didn't penetrate his skin. Tom Walsh of the St. Paul Police Department knows the name of the company the repo man works for, but they aren't listed in the telephone book, and Walsh hasn't talked to the lucky fellow.

"What's with this guy?'' Walsh was asked. "Does he weigh about 500 pounds?''

"No,'' Walsh said, "he isn't that big, just lucky. He was wearing a leather jacket, and they were shooting a small-caliber pistol.''

"That's some bad shooting,'' I said, because every once in a while I like to try out a new world-record understatement.

"It's not like we want them on the shooting range,'' Walsh said.

I suppose not. We should be thankful. Many bad guys are simply morons.

It didn't occur to me that we still had repo men. They seem typecast right out of the 1970s, but then I must admit I did watch every episode ever produced of "The Rockford Files.'' Banks still occasionally use repo men. When it comes down to a choice between a repo man and a bank vice president or a third assistant loan officer going to the scene of the nonpayment, the repo man still gets that cold call every time.

It was about 12:30 a.m. Monday when the 23-year-old repo man apparently went to repossess a vehicle in the 900 block of Aurora Avenue. Personally, I could see going out at 12:30 in the morning if it was a Jaguar or a Ferrari, but the delinquent vehicle was a minivan. That is a dedicated repo man. As he approached the minivan, two guys got out of a black SUV and started shooting at him.

Six times the bad guys fired. The repo man did what any sensible fellow would do. He drove himself to a fire station, Station No. 18 on University Avenue. The paramedics took him to Regions Hospital, but the doctors didn't find any holes in the guy, and they released him.

Now, interestingly enough, the police report points out that the "greatest probability'' is that the man was on the scene to repossess a vehicle. In fact, it was a vehicle he had tried to previously repossess. The police don't know for sure and as Walsh pointed out, they haven't talked to the guy.

On Sunday, about 12 hours prior to the shooting on Aurora, there was a shooting at Como and Front. According to Walsh, there has been a series of shootings involving a black Chevrolet Blazer and, yes, the black Blazer was reportedly on the scene of the Sunday shooting. It must have been a sign of either good weather or a mediocre Vikings season that more people weren't indoors watching the Vikings at Detroit over the noon hour Sunday.

Walsh does not believe that the repo man was in any way involved in the Sunday shooting and that he was in the wrong place at the right time, or the right place at the wrong time, when he arrived in the still of the night to get back that minivan. It could be, for example, that the owners of the minivan were involved in the Sunday gunplay

REPO 101... CHECK THE VIN

2006-12-12T11:52:00.000-08:00

KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- A local woman looked out the window to see a repossession company towing away her car, but it was the wrong car, KMBC's Lara Moritz reported.

Jenny Birchler said she had been enjoying her Saturday morning until the mix-up happened.

"I went running out the door with my shoes in my hand. I was yelling, 'What are you doing? What are you doing?' And he said, 'We've been looking for this car.' I said, 'Not this car you haven't.' And he said, 'Yes, we have,' and I said, 'Show me the paperwork,'" Birchler said.

She said the repo man didn't check the vehicle identification number, instead he just assumed he had the right car and was ready to tow it.

"I said, 'Put it down,' so he proceeded to put it down because my husband said, 'I'd put it down or she's going to be all over you.' So, he put it down, and he still didn't check the VIN, and he took off and left," Birchler said.

Moritz reported that the repo man works for Crown Auto Recovery. The owner did not return KMBC's phone calls.

Birchler said she contacted the company about its towing policies.

"(I asked,)'What is your policy and procedure when you're repo-ing?' He said, 'Well, they have the VIN, they have the make and the model and the year,'" Birchler said.

She said the owner called it an honest mistake, but it could have cost her a lot of money.

"If we would have left five minutes before, he would have towed my car and I would've reported it stolen," Birchler said.

QuickRepo.com

2006-12-07T12:25:00.000-08:00

QuickRepo.com Traffic Passes Other Repo Man / Company Directories

The traffic, or number of visitors, to QuickRepo.com is currently greater than that of any other repo man / repossession company directory, according to Alexa.com.

Sterling Heights, MI, December 06, 2006 --(PR.COM)-- Glaeser Enterprises, LLC – The Internet’s largest collection of repossession tools and information, QuickRepo.com, has gained even more traffic this week. Traffic to QuickRepo.com has grown sharply and steadily in recent weeks, as repossession agents, lending institutions, and the general public take advantage of the outstanding repossession offerings the site has to offer. From the repo man / repossession company directory that spans the US, Canada, Guam, Puerto Rico, Washington DC, and the Virgin Island, to the repossession laws and forms, QuickRepo.com is a wealth of repossession information and resources.

“According to Alexa.com, we are receiving more traffic than any of the other repo company directories on the Internet. The enormous amount of traffic to our site is fantastic, seeing as we officially launched on November 6,” said David M. Glaeser Jr., president of Glaeser Enterprises, LLC.

What exactly are Alexa.com traffic rankings? Well, first off, Alexa.com is owned by Amazon.com, so it is a highly reputable company. A site's ranking is based on a combined measure of reach and pageviews. Reach is determined by the number of unique users who visit a site on a given day. Pageviews are the total number of URL (ex: www.quickrepo.com) requests for a site. However, multiple requests for the same URL on the same day by the same user are counted as a single pageview. The site with the highest combination of users and pageviews is ranked #1 (currently Yahoo!). So, if a page is ranked 1,234, it is the 1,234th most popular page among all websites on the Internet. Currently, QuickRepo.com has an Alexa ranking of 305,184, while their closest competitor is only ranked 2,403,366. That is a staggering difference of 2,098,182 positions between the two top repo man / repossession company directories.

“QuickRepo.com is dedicated to helping you find the repossession support you need, quickly and easily. We have used numerous methods and marketing to increase our traffic, and are seeing the results pay off for our advertisers,” said Glaeser.

Learn more about the QuickRepo.com nationwide repo man / repossession company directory, find legal and repossession forms, repossession laws, a repo man forum, learn and more, at http://www.quickrepo.com.

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About QuickRepo.com:

QuickRepo.com helps financial and legal professionals, as well as the public, find the repossession and recovery services they need, quickly and easily. Not only can visitors use the nationwide repo directory to find a repossession agent or repo company in all fifty states, they can also find repo companies in all Canadian provinces and territories, Washington DC, Guam, and Puerto Rico. On top of the outstanding repossession directory, QuickRepo.com also offers visitors free repossession and legal forms, court information, repossession laws, a forum, and much, much more. QuickRepo.com is a wholly owned subsidiary of Glaeser Enterprises, LLC.

'Repo' sparks melee

2006-11-18T09:45:00.000-08:00

BY STEPHEN PETERSON SUN CHRONICLE STAFF
Friday, November 17, 2006 10:56 PM CST

PLAINVILLE - Patrolman Gregory Kiff calls it a "car repossession that went bad."

Three men were arrested Thursday night, allegedly after they attacked a man trying to repossess a car at a home on South Street.

"The repo guy was trying to tow a car from a driveway and the car owner" and two others attacked him, Kiff said, adding that the man was thrown to the ground and kicked as well as robbed of $100 he had in his pocket.

In the mayhem, the victim, Robert Abbott of Brockton, was reportedly struck by the vehicle - allegedly with the owner, Jeffrey V. Lacourse, 42, of 230 South St., behind the wheel - and ended up on the hood.

"He was pretty sore," Kiff said.

Abbott was treated at the scene by Plainville firefighters, but declined to go to a hospital.

The incident was reported about 8:50 p.m. in a 911 call by a co-worker in the repo company's tow truck, Ernest Mello, also of Brockton.

Lacourse drove away in an apparent attempt to hide the car, Kiff said, but eventually returned home in his stocking feet and told police where he parked the car.

All three assailants were charged with assault and battery, with Lacourse charged with assault with a dangerous weapon, the car, as well as reckless operation of a motor vehicle, police said.

Stephen Beal, 21, also of 230 South St., Plainville, and a friend of his, Jeffrey Hebert, 28, of 234 Green St. Wrentham, were also charged with unarmed robbery, police said. Hebert was also charged with witness intimidation, for threatening the co-worker.

The three men were arraigned Friday in Wrentham District Court, and held on $500 cash bail each.

The vehicle was towed and impounded at the police station.

The investigating officer is Matthew Webber. Plainville police were assisted by three Wrentham patrolmen.

HAD TO ADD THIS...

2006-10-30T09:47:00.000-08:00

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

2006-10-29T10:43:00.000-08:00

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...

2006-10-24T06:56:00.000-07:00

(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

2006-10-23T20:57:00.000-07:00

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

2006-10-23T20:55:00.000-07:00

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

2006-10-18T09:53:00.000-07:00

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

2006-10-13T08:49:00.000-07:00

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

2006-10-12T20:28:00.000-07:00

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

2006-10-11T14:19:00.000-07:00

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.

2006-10-09T09:13:00.000-07:00

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

2006-10-07T11:42:00.000-07:00

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

2006-10-07T11:39:00.000-07:00

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

2006-10-07T11:36:00.000-07:00

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

2006-10-07T11:35:00.000-07:00

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?

2006-10-07T11:33:00.000-07:00

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.