The American Spectator : Hanging Out With the Repo Man

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Hanging Out With the Repo Man

By Andrew B. Wilson from the July 2009 - August 2009 issue

He's smart, he's funny, and he "steals" cars legally. (He's also the best friend you never knew you had.) Our July-August issue's cover story.

Business for the nation’s top recovery agents (better known as “repo men”) is booming. It has gotten to the point that some of them are feeling downright uncomfortable about their own success.

“Joe the Plumber used to be our friend and neighbor,” says J. Patrick Altes, 54, the softspoken, red-haired president of Falcon Inter national in Daytona Beach. “Now we’re repoing his truck.”

Altes is dealing with a surge of delinquencies and defaults—coming at the end of a long boom in Florida’s real estate and construction markets. With 50 employees and a fleet of 10 “self-loading” tow trucks, which can hook and remove a car or truck from a homeowner’s driveway in a matter of seconds, Altes is bringing in 400 cars and trucks per month this year, up from 175 month in early 2008.

While business is better than ever, Altes does not like having to target “fellow church members and Rotarians.” It’s the price he pays for moving “from crack town to the gated communities.” He’s spending less time with “the usual con men, travelers, and deadbeats,” and more time with “good people who, through no fault of their own, are unable to pay their bills.” Though sympathetic to their plight, he has put the clamps on scores of struggling or outof- work real estate agents, appraisers, mortgage bankers, merchants, carpenters, roofers, carpet layers, and—yes—plumbers.

According to national statistics compiled by MVTRAC, a Chicago-based firm, repo agents will pick up an estimated 2 million vehicles in 2009, up from 1.8 million in 2008, 1.6 million in 2007, and 1.1 million in 2002. The repossession of boats has nearly doubled over the past two years.

In the steepness of the current economic downturn, the upturn in the repo business may be likened to a movie on runaway consumption played in reverse. Think of all the fancy cars, boats, jet skis, and Harleys that were flying off dealers’ lots and landing in front of peoples’ homes during the economic boom. Now think of the same objects flying back the other way, landing in lots similar to, if not identical with, the places where they were first sold, where they will now be auctioned off to a new set of owners at distressed prices. This is the forcible deleveraging of America.

Even if you are biased in favor of the consumer, it would be wrong to dismiss the man responsible for retrieving those backward-flying assets as some kind of blackguard profiting from the misfortunes of others. Believe it or not, the repo man is your friend. Like the butcher, the baker, and the candlestick maker, he exemplifies the power of the “invisible hand.” Without a doubt, your own affairs as a consumer or small business owner would be more difficult without him.

If you have ever bought anything on installment—from a car or a truck to the equipment needed to run a farm or a small- or medium-sized business—you can thank the enterprising and resourceful repo man for helping to make you a creditworthy risk in the eyes of the lender. You can also thank him for the fact that you pay a much lower interest rate on your installment loan than you do on your credit card, which is not secured by any collateral. You might even thank him for your job—if you still have one.

This is how Jack S. Barnes, a nationally recognized expert on the repossession and liquidation of collateral, explains it in his book Collateral Recovery, published in 2008:

The ability to repossess collateral to reduce losses from a defaulted loan, and the right to dispose of that collateral, are two of the most important laws affecting the financial health of the United States! In 1990, 41% ($288 billion) of all installment loans outstanding were for the purchase of cars. The latest report indicates enormous growth. The current report by the Federal Reserve estimates the amount of installment loans in this country to be $1.3 trillion and that 60% or $780 billion is in outstanding auto loans. The ability to repossess an automobile if the loan defaults provides the security for these loans.

Without the ability to repossess, funds would dry up…with devastating results to both the auto industry and the nation’s economy. It is easy to see the immediate impact on the auto manufacturer, the corner gas station, the auto parts store, radiator shop, the tire shop, auto mechanics and dealers, fabric manufacturers, electronic manufacturers, glass manufacturers, and hundreds more. Add to that the grocer, department store, and every other merchant where those now unemployed shopped, well, the circle keeps growing.

I Decide to Pay the Repo Man a Surprise Visit

Earlier this year, a repo man knocked on the door of a friend of mine—the owner of a small business—and asked for the keys to the car. My friend had missed a couple of car payments because some of his clients had been slow in paying him, and also because he had over-stretched—leaving no margin for the possibility of late payments. Looking out the door, he saw his prized Mercedes dangling from the back of a tow truck. Like it or not, this was the old story of losing a favorite toy due to careless or negligent behavior. After arguing for a few minutes, he handed over the keys.

That incident piqued my interest in the repo trade, but it had nothing to do with how I came to know Pat Altes, Jack Barnes, and other members of the profession, including the legendary Ron L. Brown, an ex-CIA agent who has repoed “everything from a million-dollar oil rig…and 40 head of cattle…to seven prostitutes” sought as witnesses in a celebrated Hous ton murder case. (Acting, in effect, as a repo agent for the Texas Rangers, Brown was able to track the badly frightened girls down to a hiding place in Corpus Christi and secure their safety, before the murderer and his friends discovered their whereabouts—and secured their silence.)

My introduction to the repo trade came about as an unexpected result of a trip I made to Daytona Beach in mid-April. When my wife and I stopped for lunch at the famous Shores Resort & Spa, the lobby was filled with a boisterous convention crowd. Over lunch I wondered aloud about the identity of the group.

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About the Author

Andrew B. Wilson is a freelance writer living in St. Louis.

Letter to the Editor View all comments (32) | Leave a comment

Becky| 8.11.09 @ 9:07AM

I expect within a year, some of these clunker replacements will be on repo lots.

Ken (Old Texican)| 8.11.09 @ 9:20AM

No one...No one... expected this kind of crash.

The first TARP bill, like it or not, was needed. Even Rush and Newt agree.

Bush, as always, trusted his helpers too much, and forgot that either a communist...or a broken warrior... was following him into the oval office.

Since the election, those communist America haters have been licking their chops, and feeding the pigs.
Nevertheless, we America lovers will win this war.

BET ON IT, T.E.A.M. !!!

PolishKnight| 8.11.09 @ 10:04AM

What a wonderful article!

Sean| 8.11.09 @ 10:44AM

Ken,

There were people that predicted this crash. They are also the ones that opposed TARP. The ones that couldn't predict the crash supported TARP. The ones that couldn't predict the crash also supported the stimulus bill. Those that predicted the crash opposed the stimulus bill. Unfortunately too many people are still listening to those that are clueless.

Dan| 8.11.09 @ 1:13PM

Becky, I suspect your right on the money.
Thats just what everyone needs more consumer debt.
Probably good times ahead for the repo-man.

Robert Pinkerton| 8.11.09 @ 1:25PM

Only by semantic laxity does one "borrow" money from strangers; rather, one rents a stranger's money, the rental charge being "interest." Unlike 99+% of my fellow Americans, I have always -- consistently -- thought that the renting of a stranger's money for personal consumption to be the height of folly. (Gambling with rented money leaves "stupid" far, far behind in the direction of suicidal perversity.) As such, I not only never ever obligated myself to pay even so little as a penny of "interest," but have silently cheered every time I have heard of someone garnisheed (i.e.: Wages attached, stopped and diverted to the creditor) or repo'd. I hoped against hope (Yes, I consider hope a vice. Make of that what you will.) that the humiliation might induce the victim to change his/her ways. Whether one actually borrows -- i.e.: Without charge, from family or friends -- or rents from a stranger, alongside of any material object that might be in pledge as security, one's honor is in pledge for security; mine is just too precious to me to risk in betting on the future. Too, simply I cannot justify spending the extra that is interest, when by waiting 'til I have saved enough, I can obtain what I want for simply its tagged price.

Fifty years ago, when I was fifteen, I heard a favorite aunt complaining about the paperwork she had to do every time one of the laborers in the scrapyard (where she worked as office "manager" -- two other office girls) got garnisheed -- which was frequently. I could not understand how any adult could bear such humiliation without suicide. Needless to say, I learnt more as my field of social observation broadened and deepened.

In my last two years of college, my side job -- part-time -- was as a bill collector for a finance company. (I had one of the debtors, a hard-core deadbeat, tell me he would rather deal with a demon out of hell than with me. I never raised my voice, nor used profanity, nor got really or feigned angry; nothing personal, just business.) Forget your anti-Sicilian ethnic slurs about the Cosa Nostra collector and his baseball bat: The law of the State of Ohio gave the creative creditor everything he might need at take a delinquent debtor apart. And, yes. I had asked my boss to give me only people from whom the company did not want repeat business. I finished my BA with NO overhanging indebtedness in 1970, and quit the collection business.

However, while I applied for work after college, I was told by several prospective employers that, while I otherwise looked very good to them, the deal-breaker in my personal history was the fact that I had no indebtedness whatsoever! Make of that what you will; however, intervening decades of observation have led me to put a thoroughly malign construal thereon. The person without indebtedness but with savings, if he gets fired, is well able to pick himself up, dust himself off, and straightaway commence searching for other work, not needing to take simply any port in a storm; perhaps his pride is slightly hurt, but that is all. Likewise, the person with no debts but also no savings, though loss of employment might cause him more pain and diminish his choices of subsequent employment through need for immediacy. However, the poor soul who is base over apex in debt with no savings, is the one who will be seriously hurt by loss of employment regardless of the reason for this; this is the one who is meat for the employer bent on doing unlawful -- or lawful but unconscionable -- things, for this poor soul wears a collar with leash attached, which leash can be jerked. I have seen this last situation happen to others.

I acknowledge without shame nor guilt that I hate the very institution of consumer credit, and that I love that hatred as a stimulus to virtue. I believe myself vindicated in that attitude by the current crisis. Such economic growth as the United States should pursue is closer to hardwood tree-ring growth than the fashion of bubble "growth," for it is in the nature of bubbles that they burst. Consumer credit is the noxious gas (Flatus of the body politic?) with which our recent bubbles bave been filled.

Assuming the United States survives this current crisis, if the crisis teaches a large minority of our population unconditionally to loathe and shun consumer credit at all costs, perhaps some value might be extracted from the aftermath. Unfortunately, however, at least I believe that we Americans are seing the beginning of the end for this country as a unified political entity.

Dan| 8.11.09 @ 1:48PM

Robert, your so right. The public has been brainwashed to expect easy credit.
Even the theme song for one of the credit card companies sings loud and clear, "I want it and I want it now".

PolishKnight| 8.11.09 @ 2:14PM

Dan, my wife and I loved that commercial (with the song "I want it now")

It was actually a credit card advertising a feature for consumers to check their credit limit and stay in it, rather than buy something they couldn't afford and/or go over it.

In the commercial, the man gets all excited over buying a 60 inch flat panel TV and when he checks his limit, he returns home with a more modest 32 inch. His wife says helpfully to him: "This is nice." I thought it was wonderful that the ad was showing respect for a man living within his credit limit (which isn't perfect, but a start anyway.)

Dan| 8.11.09 @ 2:22PM

Remember it well.

GG| 8.12.09 @ 2:51AM

The England and Wales Cricket Board confirmed the 29-year-old is back in hospital for further treatment but is due to be released on Wednesday.
Pietersen was operated on after his movement became increasingly restricted through the first two Ashes Tests.
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The surgery already meant he would miss the final three matches of the series.
"Pietersen will be discharged from hospital tomorrow after experiencing a complication of the wound made during surgery on his injured right Achilles two and a half weeks ago," the ECB said in a statement on Tuesday.
"He was seen by a wound care specialist and will receive a course of antibiotics in order to exclude infection.
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"Medical advice is that a complication can occur post surgery and in this case resulted despite Kevin closely following specialist advice on management of the wound."
The injury first surfaced on England's tour of West Indies in March.
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However, Pietersen's recovery was slowed when he strained the tendon again while playing for the Bangalore Royal Challengers in the Indian Premier League in April.
The Hampshire right-hander then missed the one-day series when West Indies made a return visit in May.
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Despite clearly struggling at the crease, he averaged 38.25 from four innings at Cardiff and Lord's in the current Ashes series.
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The ECB originally estimated Pietersen would be absent for six weeks and he has been named in England's initial 30-man squad for the ICC Champions Trophy, which begins in South Africa on 22 September.

chi hair straightener| 9.1.09 @ 10:16PM

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Elyse| 9.16.09 @ 10:25AM

Repo Men and The "Big Truck Syndrome":
Run a background check on these "Repo Men" and what you will find are “the usual con men, travelers, and deadbeats” that you have unfairly applied as a label directed at those whom these creeps target for repossession.

It is interesting that you have chosen to interview company owners or the rare exception of a former CIA agent for this article. Could this possibly be due to the fact that the vast majority of Repo men are incapable of intelligent conversation, have lengthy criminal records and constantly violate the laws created to protect consumers within their States?

I am in favor of paying one's bills, but to send people with histories of violent crimes (sex offenders included) onto the private property of families with children, allowing access to their keys (which they could copy and pass along to their criminal buddies), for any reason is nothing short of dangerous and irresponsible.

Besides this, after meeting many, I must now digress:

Come on! You must have figured out at your little "Repo Party" that Repo Men are poorly educated criminals who make up for what is lacking below by trying to intimidate people. They brag and boast yet most make less than $30,000 a year and sneak around at night trying to intimidate people-Mostly Women and their children. Not the job of a tough guy, but the perfect job for a guy who is too ill equipped and embarrassed to ever get laid. Their job actually sucks, but NOBODY else would ever hire them!!!

How do I know all of this? I am a headhunter who has searched in vain for reputable Repo companies who don't hire ex-cons or people who lack judgement and common sense for several of my National accounts. After weeding through hundreds of failed background checks and interviewing people who made my skin crawl, I had to move on to a more pleasant clientele. There is nothing admirable about Repo Men.

Ray Crocker| 8.26.10 @ 10:42AM

I have been in the recovery business for 25 years. Like the true professional in our industry I have a private investigators license. In order to have that license I have to have a clean criminal record just as all of my employees do. I agree there are many undesirable people in the business. The problem is licensing and only two state require training and licensing of recovery agents.

The true professional recovery agent is aware of all laws that impact their business. They will see that all of their employees take an independent training course to make sure they understand the laws. The problem is the finance companies and banks look for the cheap repossession and hire the cheapest company available. These financial institutions who farm out 8 to 10,000 repossession a month latterly look for the cheap repoman. If they can save $50 or $75 dollars a recovery that save their company as much as $750,000.00 a month.

When a repossession goes bad the financial institution is $100% responsible for the actions of the recovery agent. Some of these financial demand a $5 million dollar insurance policy that will defend the recovery agent and the financial institution in lawsuits for wrongful repossession. Those insurance policy premiums are based on the number of repossession the company will average a year. The premiums can exceed over 100K per year.

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