Posted on 04/18/2003 5:23:02 PM PDT by arete
I talked to a local "recovery specialist" who told be that his business is absolutely booming and sees it getting better as the auto makers try to push more inventory off their lots. He said that it is not unusal to repo a car from a guy and then have to go back again 6 months later and get another from the same person.
Richard W.
Comments and opinions welcome.
Richard W.
The economy is getting stronger every day.
After chasing the guy away with a shotgun four times, and half a dozen calls to the police and threatening a restraining order the idiot finally stopped trying to swipe his truck.
You would think after the keys didn't work and the names didn't match the redo-dude might have done a little homework rather than wasting three months trying to repo the wrong truck.
I don't think this occupation attracts the best and the brightest
That’s because this “theft” isn’t theft in most states. It’s recovering someone else’s property that is illegally being used.
Anyway, you have to be careful if you do this type of job in Texas. It used to be that you could use lethal force to protect yourself or your property – especially at night. The general rule of thumb is that if you can take the car and remove it from the premises, it constitutes a repo. If you get killed in the process, the guy prevented the theft of property that he was legally responsible for making payments on. At least that’s the way it used to be.
That’s why the towing company I worked for as a kid (owned by an ex-cop) used a paid off duty (but uniformed) officer to come along to notify the owner that it was a legitimate repo. On top of that, we’d try to do it in the daytime and preferably get it from the parking lot of the guy’s job if he had one.
As long as you're good with a coat hanger.
Richard W.
Is that the Chinese economy?
Richard W.
What the h### kind of law is that? (and this is a J.D. asking here) If the financing contract says that the lender has the legal right the repossess the vehicle if the payments aren't up to date, then the lender's agent has the legal right to repossess it, and the borrower has no legal right to interfere. Maybe the Socialist State of New York has passed some weird law specific to car-repos, but this sounds mighty odd. The repo guys can legally snatch the car, except if the borrower happens to see him starting to do it and asks him to stop, and then it would be illegal???
Chalk it up to a misspent childhood, as a paratrooper in the us army.
I still have a slim-jim in my truck.
Still true today. Here is the relevant law. Penal Code 9.42.
§ 9.42. Deadly Force to Protect PropertyA person is justified in using deadly force against another to protect land or tangible, movable property:
(1) if he would be justified in using force against the other under Section 9.41; and
(2) when and to the degree he reasonably believes the deadly force is immediately necessary:
(A) to prevent the other's imminent commission of arson, burglary, robbery, aggravated robbery, theft during the nighttime, or criminal mischief during the nighttime; or(B) to prevent the other who is fleeing immediately after committing burglary, robbery, aggravated robbery, or theft during the nighttime from escaping with the property; and
(3) he reasonably believes that:
(A) the land or property cannot be protected or recovered by any other means; or(B) the use of force other than deadly force to protect or recover the land or property would expose the actor or another to a substantial risk of death or serious bodily injury.
Folks, this only applies to TEXAS. I think Texas is unique in this law. If you are on my property at night and I shoot you in the back with my property in your hands while you are running away, I cannot be prosecuted. We take our neighbor's fences mighty seriously down here. Don't try this in your state.
Don't tell me the NYT flubbed an apostrophe... that would just break my heart.
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