2024 is just about done and it’s that time when we start looking back at all that’s happened over the year. But rather than providing you all with my longwinded narrative, let’s take a look back at the ten most popular stories of the year.

So, away we go!

#10 – Repo Agent Murdered in NC

Following the record number of murders in 2024, we had a much needed respite from the non-stop tragedy, but on September 26^th, that quiet had come to an end as we reported the murder of 25-year-old Repossessor Khyré Jamaal Grier.

Grier, when found by police, had been dead for five hours. The repossession attempt that was at the center of his murder is reported to have occurred at approximately 2 am when the alleged borrower 49-year-old Fabio Herminio Funes saw him attempting to repossess his vehicle. An argument reportedly ensued and Funes is reported to have opened fire.

According to the local press, Grier worked for Carolina Towing Company LLC.

Funes was captured the same day and police later captured his was trying to cross the border into Mexico.

Grier was a father of two. His mother set up a GoFundMe page which raised a mere $10K.

#9 – Wrongful Death During Repossession Lawsuit Moves to Arbitration

The tragic police shooting of 39-year-old father and borrower Stephen Perkins by the Decatur Police Department outside his home on September 29 of 2023. Police claimed that a repossessor had previously attempted to repossess Perkins truck when it is alleged that Perkins pulled a gun on him. This resulted in the agent calling 911.

Video surveillance cameras captured from neighbors captured the moment Perkins was gunned down. A total of eighteen rounds were fired at him.

2024 – Top Ten Stories The same video also captured the agent from Allstar Recovery towing away Perkins truck as he lay dying just feet away.

This horrible incident led to a wrongful death lawsuit and criminal charges against the officer who fire the shots. While the defendants successfully moved the lawsuit to arbitration, the arbitrator is not necessarily one with a history of good relations with the repossession industry, it is the Alabama Better Business Bureau.

Named in the lawsuit are the Lender, Pentagon Federal Credit Union (PenFed), America’s second-largest federal credit union, serving over 2.9 million members worldwide with $35.4 billion in assets as of November 1, 2023, according to their website. Also named was Allstar Recovery and the repossessors involved in the incident.

#8 – Repo Man Ambushed and Shot 8 Times – Fighting for His Life

Back on October 14^th, we reported on the condition of repossession agent and 40-year-old father of two Benjamin Bolton who was brutally chased down and shot eight times suffering three wounds to his arm, three in the abdomen, one in the pelvic area, and one that became lodged between his heart and his lung. Bolton was taken to the ICU where he was put on a ventilator.

2024 – Top Ten Stories Hoping to cover living expenses while Bolton recovered, the family set up a GoFundMe page where, to date, they only received $8,585 of the hoped for $25K. His current condition is unknown as he appeared to be directly employed by local buy-here-pay-here used car dealers and not directly employed by a nationally recognized repossession agency.

While police detained three men on possible charges from the DA’s office, after almost three weeks, on October 30th, the Police named and charged Brandon Munoz, 19, with aggravated assault with a deadly weapon and were actively attempting to locate and place him under arrest.

#7 – DRN Issues Statement on LPR Staging

As a follow up to an earlier meeting with the ARA, Jeremiah Wheeler, President of DRN, MVTRAC and SCM, published a response to defending DRN’s LPR staging process and stated that they would be engaging in these discussions with a clear priority: ensuring the safety of agents and we hope that others will join us, driving towards this common goal.

This came as a follow up to the ARA’s November 17 article ARA and DRN Meet to Discuss LPR Safety where the ARA stated that DRN “will not support staging before day 10,”. Nowhere in DRN’s response did they make the same statement. They instead stated that “While it’s not our place to dictate how lenders, forwarders, or agents should run their businesses, we strive to foster a balanced dialogue that benefits everyone involved.”

#6 – Carjacking Charges Filed for Armed Repossession

Professionals hire professionals. This story exemplifies why. The whole series of events occurred in December of 2023, when Erik Hadad, 58, of Aventura, Florida, the father of a man whose son owns a Miramar used car dealership, began following 25-year-old borrower Jean Louis, 25, who had allegedly only made had made two payments on his silver 2020 Honda lent to him by Guru Auto Sales.

With a handgun tucked in his waistband, he followed Schneider Jean Louis from Jean Louis’ home in Miami Shores to a Tri-Rail station parking lot. At one point on the journey south, both cars stopped at a red light and Hadad got out to try to talk to Jean Louis, removing the vehicle’s paper temporary tag.

Jean Louis drove away and went to the parking lot, where Hadad caught up with him again. The first police reports indicate that Hadad showed Jean Louis his gun and ordered him out of the vehicle, snatched the keys and drove off in the Honda, leaving his own black BMW behind. Hadad brought the Honda to his son, who showed up in the same parking lot, according to the initial police report.

Defense lawyer Russell Williams, who represents the elder Hadad, said his client identified himself to Jean Louis and never intentionally displayed his gun, according to Williams’ account in a motion to dismiss the federal case.

The Hadads, were arrested and charged with armed carjacking by the Miami-Dade State Attorney’s Office. In October, Hadad was convicted of both state and federal charges and faces up to 15 years in prison when he faces sentencing on January 9^th of 2025.

#5 – Court Ruling Takes the Teeth out of the CFPB?

Back on July 2^nd, we shared another great guest editorial from Wes Carico of Artis Recovery who opined on a Supreme Court ruling that showed the potential to scale back much of the enforcement power of agencies like the CFPB by overturning the Chevron doctrine. Chevron essentially told courts to defer to an agency’s “expertise, opinion, and interpretation” when laws were ambiguous.

As long as an agency could tie a “Rule” to a vague statute, they could enforce it as if it were law. Courts only needed to find the agency’s argument “reasonable” if challenged, thanks to the deference Chevron granted.

In this editorial, Wes used this ruling against the CFPB’s ruling on charging personal property fees in that under the Chevron doctrine, If the CFPB created a rule saying it’s unfair to hold property for payment, lenders would have to comply to avoid fines. Challenging this in court was tough because judges had to defer to the CFPB.

But in the post-Chevron world, If fined, lenders can still challenge in court, but now judges will focus more on the actual law and arguments related to the Skidmore doctrine (which isn’t as strong as Chevron).

While we’ve yet to see any serious action that employed this post decision, it could come into play in the future. As with all of Wes’s editorials, this is a worthy article for consumption.

#4 – Repo Ends in Gunfire and Armed Robbery

In late October we reported an incident that occurred in Chester Township, Ohio where a simple repossession turned bad real fast and, in all places, a church parking lot while a preschool class was in session. Better yet, it was all captured on video.

Following a smooth recovery, the unnamed agent pulled into a church parking lot to strap the vehicle onto the wheel lift when a vehicle sped into the lot and blocked his exit. Even before the car came to a stop, the passenger had leapt from his seat with a gun drawn which he cocked and fired toward the back of the truck.

2024 – Top Ten Stories Pointing the gun to the agent’s head, the man forced the agent to drop the vehicle from his truck. After stealing the agent’s phone and throwing it in a pond, the assailants fled. Police soon arrested the suspects who were later named as Ronald and Kevin Delisio.

Both were arrested without incident. Both face charges of aggravated robbery, kidnapping and aggravated menacing.

#3 – Police Harassing Agents in PA Prompts Pushback

While anonymous editorials are generally not accepted on CURepossession, this one was allowed due to the nature of reasoning for desiring to remain anonymous. The persons being complained about were the Philadelphia Police.

Of issue was Directive 12.5 which is in found in the Philadelphia police departments book of directive which in short is the employee handbook for policy and procedures for Philadelphia police department employees that sstate that members of the department will inform anyone repossessing a vehicle they must report to the district with jurisdiction over the repossession location immediately following the recovery for inspection.

This consisted of agents having to write up their own police report known as a “48” form then turn it into the district operations room and an officer working in the district would come outside to verify vin (which they never do) and then go back inside and run the vehicle through NCIC and internal system known as PCIC for any wanted or stolen statuses. Then the agent would be provided with a signed copy of his report.

This process without any hiccups in itself, is a 30–45-minute process ON EACH REPOSSESSED UNIT meanwhile the agent is sitting in limbo with the car on the hook out front of the district blocking traffic, beacons flashing and simply a sitting target for a crazed debtor with nothing to lose that may have a tracker on the vehicle or knows the policy.

After legal consideration, the affected repossession agencies found legal representation that basically said Directive 12.5 was not applicable to them and, “ We will not be bullied into believing what we are doing is illegal when it’s not.”

#2 – Repo Agent Crushed – Devastated Family Needs Your Help!

On September 17^th, in Carthage, Texas, police discovered a tow truck with a vehicle attached to it, running and unoccupied. Beneath the truck, they discovered the body of repossession agent Jason Lewis.

39-year-old Jason was a father of five. It was later discovered that the truck was in gear. It is believed that he had disconnected the transmission linkage of the repossessed vehicle while forgetting to put the tow truck in park and set the brake.

2024 – Top Ten Stories Stepping up as always, the Recovery Agents Benefit Fund (RABF) came to help with the family’s immediate need for donations and help to make funeral arrangements. But for his wife of 13 years, Allison and their five children, their world has been turned upside down, as Jason was their world and sole provider.

This tragedy is an important training lesson for all, as was our number one story of the year.

#1 – Nduli Repossession Death Trial – Important Lessons In Agent Safety

This story is actually a repeat from 2022’s list and was only number 4 back then. But it was republished due to its importance in learning lessons from tragedy.

Back in May of 2019, 71-year-old Albert Nduli of Houston awoke to find his car being repossessed. Minutes later, his head was crushed under the tire of his own vehicle being towed away. In October of 2022, the wrongful death lawsuit settled. In its aftermath, we have the evidence of this tragedy that gives important details of the incident.

Of curious note was the agency owner’s statement on breach of peace as defined in their CARS training when under deposition stated her disagreement.

Q.· ·So you disagree with the CARS manual on that particular point?

A.· ·On the objection.··On them just simply objecting, sure, I — I disagree with CARS on that.··I mean, an objection is just a word.··I mean, you can say, you know, don’t take my car all day long.

Q.· ·All right.

A.· ·If it — if the car — if cars are dropped just because someone objects, nothing would be repo’d.

The lessons learned from this are ones that need to be shared with every repossessor, new and old for years to come. Please share appropriately.

Goodbye 2024

Like I said in the number 1 article closing, it really is a critical story for the repossession industry to share for years to come. Fortunately, we were spared as many deaths in 24’ but there was no shortage of shootings, stabbings and assaults.

This decade has given the repossession industry some tough years. And while pandemic shut down, agency closings and low repossession volume strangled the life out of it for the first two years, 2023 brought it back to life and 2024 was the most active it had been in many years.

I’ve said it a thousand times and I’ll say it a thousand more; no car is worth dying for. Let us all pray that this unprecedented rash of violence we saw in 2023 continues to ease and that 2025 provides a safer and more profitable year for everyone.

So, as we celebrate the oncoming new year and all of the hope that it brings, do not forget the lessons learned from the year that has passed. Do not forget to tell those closest to you that you love them. You may never get another chance.

To all of you, as I head into my 15th year of reporting on CUCollector and CURepossession, I thank you for yet another great year. I sincerely appreciate all of your support. Your editorials and submissions have always been the heart and soul of this site and you all helped make 2024 our biggest year yet. I have a couple of new projects nearing launch for this year that I hope you will enjoy.

I would also like to give a very special thank you to all of our awesome advertisers, without whom this site would not even exist.

I am blessed to serve you all and grateful for your support. Thank you all again.