Violent early morning repo

[Wayne Murray]

I used to help repo cars in LA.  The owners "never" know why their car is
being taken.



-----Original Message-----
From: central-city-discuss-bounces at gcna.info
[mailto:central-city-discuss-bounces at gcna.info] On Behalf Of Ivana Olson
Sent: Thursday, August 24, 2006 3:13 AM
To: central-city-discuss at gcna.info
Subject: Violent early morning repo

Just recently (about 2:30am) the house had gotten quiet and I heard some car

doors slam and the neighbors car alarm was going off. I looked out the 
window to make sure it wasn't our new car, since I'm not familiar with it's 
alarm yet and I didn't see anything here or across the street (which is 
where the alarms usually come from). A few minutes later I heard loud 
shouting and lots of cuss words very clearly coming from outside.

A man with a tow truck had backed up to my next door neighbors driveway and 
hooked their car up to his truck. The neighbors heard their car alarm go off

and came outside to see what was going on. The tow truck driver ignored them

at first, continuing to hook up the the car to his truck, then when they 
couldn't get an explanation out of him they blocked his truck with their 
recycle can (I'm assuming to get his attention?)

The tow truck driver then pulled out a gun and started yelling and cussing 
at them. This was all going on when I got to the window closest to their 
drive way and was able to get a closer look. He grabbed the recycle can and 
threw it back at my neighbors (2 young hispanic couples who have been very 
quiet and pretty good neighbors to us). One of my neighbors ran inside to 
call the police and the tow truck driver got in his truck and sped off with 
their car.

When the police got here I went out to see if everything was okay and maybe 
offer what I saw if they needed it but even with 3 policemen no one would 
talk to me, even when I told them I saw what happened. I overheard one cop 
telling the neighbors that the towing company called them ahead of time to 
say they would be picking up the car.

None of this explained the violence used or the gun he pulled, though and 
I'm wondering if they even believed my neighbors when they were reporting 
the incident. Seeing as how they wouldn't even listen to what I saw I figure

they were either ignoring me or they believe the neighbors story and don't 
care.

Is this common practice when a car is reposessed? Is the towing company 
really allowed to come at 2:30 in the morning and pull a gun on the owners??

This really concerns me. These neighbors have never shown any loud or 
violent behavior and even with what I saw tonight they weren't more than 
passive agressive, understandable as they obviously didn't know why someone 
was taking their car out of their driveway.

I don't know about their finances or if they were warned ahead of time about

the repo but I know they were taken by suprise and that this incident really

scared them, as it did me.

-Ivana



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