Violent early morning repo

[Brian Leach]

I don't believe it would be in the best interest of a financial institution 
(or whatever company is financing a car purchase) to schedule a date and 
time for reposession of a car with a non-paying customer.  Giving a specific 
date and time of reposession would allow the deadbeat customer time to stash 
the car somewhere else or, worse, trash the car.  Although I've never been 
in the repo business, I'm sure the people sent out to retrieve cars have 
encountered a number of angry and/or violent individuals.  Also, you don't 
get your car repo'ed for non-payment without knowing full well that you 
haven't made the payments as scheduled.

Frankly, it sounds as though they got what they deserved.

Brian



----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Ivana Olson" <hazey_marie at hotmail.com>
To: <central-city-discuss at gcna.info>
Sent: Thursday, August 24, 2006 3:12 AM
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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