Danger dwells beyond the repossession

America’s crime wave hitting the repossession industry hard

EDITORIAL

An increase in injuries and danger is emerging in the repossession industry. This is a danger that is always present. But is only getting worse and extends far beyond the end of the debtor’s driveway. Simply put, we are seeing an increase in agents and LPR drivers falling victim to violent crime.

New Orleans

Last night on a muggy New Orleans night a repo agent had just repossessed a vehicle when he was approached by an unknown man. Gun drawn, he demanded the vehicle. Wisely, the agent let it go and the car and gunman disappeared like a fart in Hurricane Harvey. Police did not report any suspects, so it was clearly not the borrower.

Houston

Last week, just before 2am, in a nice suburban neighborhood on a Wednesday night, an LPR driver for Asset Resolutions in southeast Houston had spotted a vehicle and was pulling back waiting for a truck when an unknown man stepped away from the curb between a pair of cars as he was passing and opened fire.

The driver shouted out in pain to his dispatcher that he’d been shot. But he was lucky. The bullet passed through the car’s fender and into the driver’s seat. Searing his shirt, the bullet deflected off of his cell phone and saved his life.

This was the third gun incident that agents and drivers for this company had gone through in two weeks.

Chicago

Of course, all of us remember the sad tale of Gus Macedo in Chicago. Gus was out in the LPR camera car on January 30^th of 2022 working for AssetsBiz Corp. when a man approached him armed with a gun apparently demanding his wallet. 35-year-old Gus later died after midnight.

Philadelphia

And then there is May 3^rd, 2022 shooting of Jamie King, an adjuster for International Recovery Systems (IRS) of Philadelphia. He’d already secured his last repo in the yard and was idling at the gate preparing to head to the next, when an orange car pulled up and a masked man emerged armed.

After a brief exchange, the man opened fire on Jamie striking him in the head. Jamie lost a lot of blood and part of his skull cap, but was fortunate enough to survive, but still suffers from the affects of this injury to this day.

Jamie has improved through rehab but has gone through numerous surgeries since. His shooter, Jabril Ali, is still on the loose. He’d better hope the cops get him before Jamie’s biker buddies or anyone in the repo industry do.

Oakland

And then there is the story of Tim Nielsen. Just idling at the curb doing updates in Oakland at 4:15am at the 1800 block of East 12th Street on June 14, 2021 at the height of the pandemic madness, he was approached by three teens who put a pistol to his head to rob him. One bullet to the head and 43-year-old Tim was dead.

These are just some of the recent stories that we’ve covered over the past year. These incidents are occurring all across the country on a daily basis and very few are reported. Usually, these stories are just shared in FaceBook user groups amongst other industry professionals. It is far more common that most would believe.

There is NO safe place

Conventional wisdom tells us that the point of repossession are the most dangerous moments in the repossession process. But as the stories above demonstrate, the mere exposure to America’s out of control crime wave is flipping that concept on it’s head.

All but one of the stories above have occurred just over the past year and we’re not done yet. Crime is statistically up all across the country and, not trying to get political over this, but this has gotten especially bad in the nation’s largest Democratic cities where liberal District Attorneys have created revolving doors of criminal recidivism.

There is really nothing much that any of us can do about this nor any lender. The best we can do is be aware of our surroundings and keep our guards up.

Perhaps this is a good time for everyone to retake the Eagle XX Group’s SACAT training program. Perhaps it’s a good time to encourage the wearing of body armor, not that it does much good with a gun in your face.

Perhaps we recognize that some of these cities or boroughs are war zones and we treat them as such. Maybe there should be “combat zone rates” and commissions to the agents.

Or perhaps maybe, it’s just time for the entire lending and repossession world to recognize that this job is not an afterthought and that it is indeed one of the most dangerous in the nation.

The sad truth is, as the recession grows and delinquencies rise, repossession volume will increase well above pre-pandemic levels. While this may seem like a windfall to the cash strapped industry, the risks of injury and death will increase with it as the industry is increasingly exposed to America’s crime wave and the mental insanity that sprung from the pandemic.

While no one can do anything about crime, please do your best to be aware, be smart and be safe everywhere and at all times.

Remember; no damn car is ever worth dying over!

Be safe out there.

Kevin