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Feature
Hanging Out With the Repo Man
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.
(Page 3 of 6)
Debtor: Please, just give me a little time.
Repo guy: Time’s not mine to give.
Debtor: How am I going to pay for my car if you take it away from me?
Repo guy: You couldn’t pay for it before.
Debtor: I need to call my banker.
Repo guy: Here’s my cell phone. Go ahead and give him a call.
Many repo men take pride in their salesmanship. They think they can do as good a job talking you out of your car as the man who sold it to you did talking you into it. It’s all a matter of overcoming some initial resistance in a friendly (or at least a non-hostile) and persuasive manner. Bukur laughed in pointing out one of the factors that has allowed his parents, both 77 years old, to continue to excel in doing car repos—“Who can say ‘no’ to great-grandma or greatgranddad?”
There was complete agreement among all the people I met that it is up to the repo man—whether relying on stealth or his powers of persuasion—to make sure that there was no “breach of the peace.” This is where the law comes into play.
Under most loan agreements, if the debtor has reason to know that he has failed to make timely payments on his debt (who wouldn’t?), that in itself constitutes notification of a foreclosure and entitles the lender, or his agent, to come onto the debtor’s property to seize the delinquent asset.
But the law, in other ways, overwhelmingly favors the debtor, as Jack Barnes, the author of Collateral Recovery, and other experts agree. Most especially, when push comes to shove and a violent collision erupts between a debtor and a repo agent, judges and jurors are far more likely to side with a debtor sitting on his own property than they are with a repo agent intruding upon his private space (in the eyes of the law, a man’s home really is his castle).
All responsible repo men aim for a peaceful recovery.
But for delinquent debtors thinking they can hold on to Aston Martins and Lamborghinis simply by hanging out a “No Trespassing” sign, a few more notes are in order.
One: Once you leave your own property with it, your car is totally in play. Nothing prevents the repo man from grabbing it when you stop at the 7-Eleven and go in to pick up a pack of cigarettes.
Two: If waiting for you to move your car seems like too much work, the repo man (or the lender) will tell you that the next unwelcome visitor to your home will be the sheriff, who won’t be put off by any signs or obstacles you put in his way.
Three: It is against the law to conceal, move for purpose of concealment, or to attempt to sell, transfer, or dispose of property that has a lien against it.
About the Author
Andrew B. Wilson, a frequent contributor to The American Spectator, writes from St. Louis.
Letter to the Editor View all comments (78) | Leave a comment
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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. !!!
Pingback| 8.11.09 @ 9:42AM
Not a good sign links to this page. Here’s an excerpt:
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.
Pingback| 8.11.09 @ 10:51PM
The American Spectator : Hanging Out With the Repo Man | Moving Trucks links to this page. Here’s an excerpt:
Pingback| 8.11.09 @ 10:51PM
The American Spectator : Hanging Out With the Repo Man | Moving Trucks links to this page. Here’s an excerpt:
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.
Pingback| 8.26.09 @ 4:45PM
Hanging Out With the Repo Man « Depravity links to this page. Here’s an excerpt:
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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