Life Imitates Art on TV Repossession

Benson, NC – June 7, 2024 – They say that sometimes life imitates art. If you consider cartoons to be art, then I suppose a 28-year-old Rent-A-Center employee was perhaps channeling Barney Rubble from the Flintstones when he allegedly broke into a home to repossess a TV.

On May 29^th, Brenton Jaekwon Mosley, 28, of Four Oaks was charged with felony breaking and entering and felony larceny. His alleged crime according to the Johnston County Sheriff’s Office; forcibly entering an apartment to repossess a TV set.

Charges against Mosley claim that on May 11^th, Mosley went to an apartment on Jarvis Lane in an attempt to repossess a TV from a customer that had fallen behind on their payments.

The unnamed 32-year-old victim claims that no one was at home when Mosley arrived and that the accused forcibly entered the apartment and repossessed the TV set. He also claims that a $1,500 laptop was missing from their apartment.

Investigators report that they found suspected damage to the front door where entry had been made. Ring doorbell camera video was also seized as evidence.

Mosley was given a $30,000 bond on the two criminal charges.

Source: Johnston County Report

Way back in October of 1960, when the Flintstones aired, episode 4 was the infamous episode “No Help Wanted” episode where Barney gets a job as a Repo Man. His first assignment; repossessing Fred’s TV. While Barney doesn’t actually break into Fred’s cave/home, he does blatantly trespass.

What few in the repossession industry may remember is that decades ago, Repossessors used to have to work their way up to cars by repossessing TV’s, radios, tires, batteries and furniture (sticks as they were called back then.) Even then, incidents like the one reported above were not uncommon.

If you ever want to hear some great stories about what the repossession industry was like during the 1950’s-1960’s, you should read Bill “The Cadillac Man” Bowser’s book; The Man Came and Took it Away. Jeremiah at DRN gave me an original copy a couple of years ago. It’s really a great read.