Repo-related violence on the rise, expected to get worse
Repo men working in rural Alabama attempt to take a man's car at 2:30 am. The car's owner, 67-year-old Jimmy Tanks, hears noises and steps outside with his gun. Shots are fired and Jimmy ends up dead. The tables were turned on another repo man working in Alabama, who ended up dying of a gunshot wound. A third repo man, also in Alabama, was wounded by a gunshot while towing a vehicle away.With repossessions predicted to exceed 1.7 million vehicles this year, and the industry itself loosely regulated, violence during lawful repossessions is also predicted to rise. Only California, Florida and Louisiana license and keep track of "recovery agents," which leaves the rest to operate in a vacuum as far as limits are concerned. Federal law states only that they can't "breach the peace," but it's left to judge and jury to determine when that has happened.
One Alabama sheriff wants the state legislature to limit the hours when repossessions can take place. "There's a time and place for everything," he said, "and 3 am is not it." The problem is getting the legislature to care enough about doing it – "they are just unfamiliar with that world." So that means more people are going to have to get hurt and even killed before something substantial happens.
[Source: Yahoo!]












Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
bananas 7:16PM (3/02/2009)
Just PAY your bills and everything will be fine.
Dumbasses.
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dinnercoat 7:21PM (3/02/2009)
Or give it back.
Or they should make contact with whoever is owed money if they intend to get current at some point.
The creditor would rather help a debtor who wants to get current and make good than deal with repossession/re-sale. Dodging/avoiding the problem won't help anyone involved.
Jake B 7:41PM (3/02/2009)
How could you be super late on your payments and then shoot the guy that is actually doing his job.
BigWill 7:41PM (3/02/2009)
Both of you guys need a reality check.
1) If people could pay their bills, this country wouldn't be having a foreclosure crisis.
2) As for the creditors saying with a smile, "Just give us the car and have a nice day", either the creditors are stupid, malicious, incompetent or total a-holes. Let me tell you a story. My dad was having automatic withdrawals from his checking account to make his car payments because he travelled a lot out of the country. While he was gone, the finance company took the money out of his account, but screwed up applying the payment to his account. He came back into town on a Thursday, saw the late notices, got the runaround until he was connected with a so-called manager on Friday. The manager says "I see the problem and I'll take care of it." On Saturday the car was repo'd by a guy who was nearly shot by a neighbor during the repo. On Monday, my dad, furious, calls in and finds out that the manager he talked to on Friday, wasn't there anymore; Friday was his last day (of course he didn't tell my father that), and he apparently didn't feel like doing anything on his last day. So some guy almost gets killed because a finance company manager is lazy.
UltimoDragon 1:24PM (3/03/2009)
@ bananas: A dumbass would usually pick the simplest answer, much in the way you just did.
The fact of the matter is there are a lot more people who are going to be facing repossession, with a lot more opportunities to run into debtors taking things way too far. Repo companies might want to consider doing first-daylight and early morning retrievals instead of late night stomps that could be perceived as threatening. That, and debtors not trying to kill the messenger...or the tow-truck guy simply doing his job.
tanooki2003 1:39PM (3/03/2009)
Actually BigWill you need a reality check.
It's not the fault of the govt, America, or anyone else why people are having a hard time paying bills. They have nobody to blame but themselves and I will tell you why.
People, especially in America, seem to have this obsession of wanting to always "keep up with the jones" or try to be better than someone else by financially biting off more than they can chew. This obsession is to either try and show off to others, or just trying to bury their personal problems with buying things that a very sensible budget does not call for.
I was quite lucky and fortunate to learn about managing finances properly in economics in high school and through business classes in college before I got out in the real world and started buying the biggest house and the coolest cars. I started off small and at the same time started an international business. One strategy that I have always followed was that I calculated my cost of living which included everything from food, gas, shelter....etc and lived 15% below those means. I currently own an nice home that is fully paid off after 10 years. it's not a huge 3 story mansion or anything ridiculous, nor is it a small single story ranch. I have no need to impress anyone by buying a really big house, just to make former classmates drool, envious, or to brag about it on facebook. Our house is just the perfect size for my wife, I , my kids, and a guest with kids. Also my wife and I own our cars, which are paid in full, not leased or owned by the bank. Leasing, by the way, is a seriously bad option to choose when getting a vehicle. None of my cars are BMW's, Mercedes, or any other high end 60,000+ vehicles, although I could with the income I bring in each week but I wisely choose not to. Again I really have no need to impress anyone or show off. It's a complete waste of money and it's not worth it. I feel more satisfaction being to pay for my car in full and not have to wheel and deal for the monthly payments. I prefer having the ability to put the saved money towards traveling around the world instead of making tons of payments on items that I can't afford or can afford but have nothing left from my paycheck after all bills have been paid. Lastly I am able to at least put a minimum of $1500 a month in my savings.
I'm no genius, nor claim to be when it comes to finances. It should really be common sense to most people who want to be able to retire at the age of 40 or 50. The key to all of what i do is don't get so wrapped up in trying to impress others because it's your pocket book that suffers, in turn stressing out you, and your soon to be former life partner. I know to some it's easier said than done, but it takes practice to getting over bad habits and learn to live a little more simply.
Andrew 7:25PM (3/02/2009)
the article i think be more accurate in terms of choosing its words. For example, would Jimmy Tanks be considered the "owner" since he has declared bankruptcy and was behind on payments.
Wouldn't the bank (or whoever issued the loans) be the "owner" instead of the person who defaulted?
also with the fiance's comment, "The legal stuff I don't know anything about. I just know God is going to let justice be done."
I'm not sure if the "legal stuff" she is referring to is Tanks' death, hopefully she's not talking about the repossessing of the car. The bank or the lending institution OWNS the car.
The person who tried to retrieve the car KNEW there were risks (why else would he bring "back up"), and carrying a gun further cements that.
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efw 7:30PM (3/02/2009)
is that eminem and al pacino in the pic?
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Jake B 7:42PM (3/02/2009)
Yes...
leather bear 4:38PM (3/03/2009)
@efw
A quick check at IMDB will show you that the pic is of a young Emilio Estevez and a not so young Harry Dean Stanton. BTW, Repo Man is one of my favorite "cult" movies.
ronEbear 7:31PM (3/02/2009)
Why don`t they just call the asshole who`s car is about to get towed?. How about a voice mail message? Why not garnish his/her wages until the vehicle is returned. If the vehicle is not returned what`s stopping them from having to do jail time for theft?
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montoym 3:36PM (3/04/2009)
Two reasons not to call from the way I see it.
1. Odds are good the lender has already made numerous attempts to collect payments, generally in a few different ways like phone calls and letters. One more call likely isn't going to do much more good.
2. People who are late and already know they are candidates for a repo generally try to hide their vehicles already as it is, why give them a warning that you're on your way to get the car? How often do you really think the car will be there when you go to get it if they know ahead of time? This is also the reason for 3am repos, Usually, people are sleeping at that time and it's likely easier to get the car at a time when you most expect it to be there and least expect to run into the "owner".
Basically, it's not like the lender comes by to repo your car when you're 30 days late on a payment. You have to be significant;y behind in which case it's obvious that the buyer has little intention to pay after ignoring numerous attempts to collect. Foreclosures on homes are similar. You have to be something like 4-6months behind before they can even think of beginning foreclosure proceedings on you.
Regarding the wage garnishments. I don't know for sure, but I doubt a lender would be able to do that. At least not without a lot more red tape and cost to the lender due to it having to be court-ordered I believe.
Blacknimbus 8:05PM (3/02/2009)
Credit is a sacred trust, it's what our free society is founded on. Do you think they give a damn about their bills in Russia? I said, do you think they give a damn about their bills in Russia?
They don't pay bills in Russia, it's all free.
All free? Free my a**. What are you, a flipping commie? Huh?
No, I ain't no commie.
Well, you better not be. I don't want no commies in my car. No Christians either.
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Frank 8:01AM (3/03/2009)
^ ^ ^
Just remember kids, Drugs are bad, 'mkay?
Lord of the Patapons (slycooper_rocker) 8:08PM (3/02/2009)
good to see you put 'rural alabama'. there's no way this would have happened in the normal places like hoover. non-misleading information FTW!
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alfietcr 8:19PM (3/02/2009)
Buy Hyundai... But in any case, if i hear someone outside my home at 3 am, i come out and see someone messing with my car, oh yeah he will get shot.
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Mr. Smith 8:24PM (3/02/2009)
I guess it would be a wrong time to suggest that guns laws need to be reviewed as well...
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ZeitgeistXIII 9:38PM (3/02/2009)
Uh whats that got to do with any of this? Someone shows up at my house at 3am and starts looking like they are taking stuff then yeah there is a pretty good shot at shots being used.
Most pro repo guys I know call the sheriff and have them know whats up and sometimes already on scene to keep this crap from happening. But William Robert Lee and his midnight repo crew think its fun to do this and most likely from my experience from living in B-Ham they will be bragging about this to their buddies later.
So I hope the gal sues them. Wrongful death is a pretty strong case. Imagine who the jury will relate to the BIG BAD LOAN CO? Or the poor redneck trying to protect his home and property no matter who has the paper. The fact they carried guns to do a repo shows they anticipated trouble. Again the local Sheriffs are generally very helpful in situations like this. So it probably could of been avoided by a phone call to them. So if you will excuse me I have to go and check my yard I thought I heard something out there and it sounds too big to be a Possum.
JH 11:55PM (3/02/2009)
@zg
Well, I for one am glad it is illegal to defend property with deadly force -- if someone is stealing your car off the street and you pull a gun, then the car thief's life is threatened and it escalates from there. It's just a car -- not worth killing over. And if you shoot an actual unarmed car thief, you should go to prison. It's not the wild west -- if you see someone you think is committing a nonviolent crime against property, then call the cops. You have zero right to shoot them.
It's another story if someone's invading your home and you're in physical danger.
There are so many guns floating around out there, and virtually no requirements for ownership -- you need to prove basic competence to get a license to drive a car or motorcycle ... why not to own a firearm? Maybe things would have turned out different in this case if the old coot had been required to learn the law before he could get a gun license. Or at least the basics like "you can't shoot at people unless they're about to shoot at you." And any cop will tell you that even if you're being mugged at gunpoint, your odds are much better to comply than to escalate the situation ... not until it's someone trying to kidnap you or there's a home invasion do the odds favor flight or self-defense vs. going along. But, how many of the people who own handguns were required to take a self-defense course, or put in x number of hours at the range? None. Result: There are many stupid armed people out there.
But *even* if you think it's legal or OK to use deadly force to defend "your" car ... keep in mind in this case it is *not* the person's car. They're months behind on their payments and have been told that the car's going to be repo'ed. It's not theirs any more, it's their lender's. They have absolutely zero cause to be out there pulling deadly weapons. But, the repo man has the right to defend himself against deadly force if they do. He's just doing his job.
rndmnme 9:22PM (3/02/2009)
All I have to say is.... mmmmmm Loooorrrnnnaaa Dunnneeesss
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