Well, gee - that may be because they're working more than ever!

Emilo Estevez wanted for questioning.

I'm honestly torn on this one. Nobody deserves violence just for doing their job, but if I'm woken up at 3 am because I hear people fiddling with my car, I'd assume it was being stolen. I'd call the cops, but I know others would not hesitate to arm themselves and investigate, which leads to tragedies such as this. Maybe limit repos to 7am-9pm?

I rather go work at McDonalds before I succumb to being the scum of the earth Repo-guy. They are right down there with debt collectors in my book.

If something is no longer the property of someone else, get law enforcement to notify the person that the car/whatever is going to be repossessed and take it back in the day time, during reasonable hours.

@Coles_Law:

Or you would know that you haven't made your car payments in 6 months and the man trying to hook "your" car up is probably repossessing the bank's car and you would leave your gun indoors.

"Violence between repo men, car owners on the rise"
Not to nitpic but the article is focused on a man who was KILLED by a repo man

@AngrySicilian: Yeah, that sounds like a GREAT idea. Why not give your local PD or SD another task to fit in while fighting crime. I'm sure they have nothing better to do than track down deadbeats, who I'm also sure would stay RIGHT IN PLACE as they waited for the bank's tow truck.

@wgrune: Exactly. It's not a surprise that you missed many months of payments.

@matt1978: It amazes me how many people don't know the difference between civil and criminal law.

@Grabraham: silly nit picker

@AngrySicilian: Repo men go out and work hard, debt collectors just call and call and call. It's only a level above telemarketers. I respect the hard work repo men go through. Plus if I issued someone a loan and they didn't pay me back, I'd want compensation if I could get it.

@AngrySicilian:

The problem is that the people don't want to have "their" property repossessed and will go to great lengths to hide/avoid/escape the clutches of the repo man.

Repo men exist because the cops don't have the time to deal with everyone who quits paying their loans.

They won't repo your car if you are late on one or two payments; it takes several months of non-payment and notices from the bank before a repo man is dispatched so it shouldnt come as a surprise to the driver of the car when it gets hooked up in the middle of the night.

@AngrySicilian: Delinquent payments on a car/boat/whatever is civil matter between that borrower and the bank, and therefore outside the realm of law enforcement. The bank is reclaiming its property...it's just employing a 3rd party to repossess it.

When that happens is up to the repossession team, but I suspect it's going to go over no more easily during daylight hours than at night.

@matt1978: They do it in the middle of the night to try and avoid confrontation.

@humphrmi: You're right it is amazing. Did you know that the local Sheriff's office is often instrumental in civil law? Who do you think serves people with process? Who goes to a house that's being foreclosed on? Typically, those are Sheriff's deputies.

There's normally a fee associated with their doing so, but that's already part of their job.

@rpm773: When foreclosures get ugly and the people won't leave, you know the sheriff gets involved, right?

When someone attacks a repo man trying to collect what is delinquent, they're generally supposed to leave and then come back with the law backing them up. Seems perfectly reasonable to me for the police to keep order.

@AngrySicilian: Christ some of you people are complete assholes on the internet, just an FYI. I hope you don't come down on people like that in person.

Okay so it IS a civil matter, up until the point when the firearms come out. Maybe we should get state legislators to take a look at this issue and regulate the industry.

@Grabraham:

Well, his claim is that the dude shot at him first and he was just defending himself.

What moron goes to rural Alabama in the middle of the night and makes any kind of noise near someones house? My job constantly has me in the same type of situation (although in much friendlier context) and I am constantly freaked out that someone is going to come out and shoot me for just being there doing what I have to do. Fact: people that live in rural areas have guns, talk about them all the time, and would definitely use them if they deemed it necessary or even if they didn't but just wanted to have a little shootin' fun.

Paying cash for something one could afford would seem to skip out on this entire mess.

@matt1978:

The police get paid (very well) for dealing with these sorts of matters. More than enough to hire plenty of policemen just to process these things. And, if you think about it, you don't need particularly capable policemen to do this sort of work, so you don't necessarily need to pay them the same.

It *should* be a money maker for the police. If it isn't, they need to raise their rates.

@AngrySicilian: In most states I think you'll find it is a regulated industry. And they're subject to trespassing laws just like anyone else.

@trujunglist: Isn't "he needed killing" a valid defense in Alambama? ;)

@Applekid: Of course. But that's different than having the police do the repossession or having the police getting involved before there's an incident such as you're describing.

Let's get one thing straight: The repossession happens after the business relationship between the bank and borrower has broken down. It has to be assumed that the borrower is not interested in cooperating with the repossession. Ergo, surprise plays an important role in whether the repossession is successful or not. Unfortunately, that's what makes it a dangerous job.

@shepd: I don't know where you live, but in most areas I've lived in the police were understaffed and underfunded and had a hard enough time just keeping order. Where I currently live they recently announced that, due to budget cuts, they would no longer be able to investigate fraud claims under $10,000, for example. They really don't have time to deal with people who skip car payments.

@David Brodbeck:

According to the article only 3 states actively license and monitor recovery agents - California, Florida and Louisiana

@AngrySicilian: Well, I hope it wasn't me. I thought I went pretty easy on you :)

@David Brodbeck: :LOL.

@Grabraham: Ah, thanks for the correction.

My other point still stands, though -- even where they're not regulated they still have to comply with trespassing laws and the like.

I still have never seen that movie.

@trujunglist: What moron goes to rural Alabama in the middle of the night and makes any kind of noise near someones house

Nothing from nothing, but you just answered your own question, didn't you? :)

"It's gotten to where it's a crazy world out there," said Smith, 50, an ex-Marine who preaches part-time and sings gospel music. Smith said Thursday that he fired in self-defense after Tanks fired a shot.
Tanks was killed just two weeks after he married Georgia Tanks, who keeps a floral spray at the spot where he died beside the car, which is long gone. She wasn't at home the night he was killed because she was away teaching Vacation Bible School in nearby Meridian, Miss. She has filed a wrongful death suit in the slaying.

"It's senseless," she said, wiping away tears as she looked at their wedding photograph. "The legal stuff I don't know anything about. I just know God is going to let justice be done."

What sucks is if this Tanks guy really just intended to fire into the air to scare off kids or a thief and has now ended up dead.

But you can't fault Smith for taking his shot--it's kill or potentially be killed in those situations and I have no doubt that Tanks probably fired first (or at least made it known he had the weapon).

That said I guess having "god" in your life doesn't necessarily make you less likely to kill or be killed.

/doesn't go to church
/doesn't own a gun

@cf27: Sheriffs are hired off duty as process servers. Yay. You want a sheriff coming to your house when you're late with your cable bill? Maybe we should restart debtors prisons, too.

Repo Man spends his life getting into tense situations, Beltzer!!!!

Sorry i couldnt resist

Wake me up when the GeneCo repo men start coming around.

@wgrune: Good point-I completely blanked on that.

Life as a repo man is always intense!

@Coles_Law: If it is being repo'ed, it's not your car anymore. It probably hasn't been for a while.

I'm inexplicably craving a plate o' shrimp.

@matt1978: Logically you would charge a fee to do it. If the police charged a 100 dollar fee for a repo, it would generate cash.

I feel for the repo guy. This was a failure on the part of the car owner. He knew he was behind in payments, and probably knew that a repossession was going to come Real Soon Now. If we make the bold assumption that the repo guy is not talking out of his ass when he says he was shot at (that is certainly easy to prove/disprove), then he was right to defend himself.

Daytime-only repos aren't going to work. The reason these are done at night is because if the company doesn't know where the car is during the day, night is the only time they are going to be able to find the car, especially if the owner is trying to hide it.

I'm pretty sure the stated alternative of having the police take care of it is not going to work. The Sheriff usually serves notice of court judgement, and maybe notice to appear in court (depending on jurisdiction... notice to appear is commonly simply sent via Certified Mail or private process server.) If the courts aren't involved (and they aren't for a car repo), the Sheriff isn't going to be either.

This is a risky job, and I don't see any way around it.

@AngrySicilian:

where do people who dont pay their bills... essentially stealing from companies, who in turn have to lay off honest people.. who then can't pay their bills....

i don't have a point.. but a job is a job. at least it's honest.

@trujunglist: It's definitely not self defense. The repo men were probably trespassing to get the car. Plus the victim may have had things in the car that he wants, so if it looks like a theft he has the right to defend it as such. It's not logical to just say the person should have known the car was going to be repo'ed.

In cases like this you have no idea what would have happened if they just went to the door first and told the person. Some people will just ask to get their stuff out and let them take the car. Repo men for some reason will basically take a car in a way that looks like theft before attempting to see if the person will just surrender the vehicle. Shed no tear for them. Their tactics are not formal, and as such they open themselves up to violence. They really should not be allowed to carry weapons.

@emis: Yes you can. The repomen set this up to look like a theft. Had Tank killed one of them, odds are there would not have been any charges.

The repomen should have taken the car during the day and should have notified the owner about it so he could remove his stuff before hand.

@richcreamerybutter: Ever notice air fresheners? There's one in every car. You'll see.

I wish it was against those sneaky tow truck drivers.
I don't care about repomen. I have a friend who's one and I went with him once. It was the funnest hour I spent stealing something legally. He says he has a lot of boring time just looking for things though.

Sorry I live in a rural area, if I heard a noise, I'd come out with a gun also.

@Con Seannery is apparently an ADMIN...:

Glad i'm not the only one who thought of that movie when I read 'violence' and 'repo' in the same title

I'm the monster
I'm the villain
What perfection
What precision
Keen incisions, I deliver
Unscathed organs, I deliver
Repossessions, I deliver
I'm the Repo, Legal Assassin

Heck, its not unknown for a payment to not process, or a late customer to be told by a bank everythings A-ok, even though the repo mans already looking for their car.If a guy was towing a car because the lender F-ed up some paperwork I can see why thered be some 'confusion'.