Monday, March 16, 2009

Reposessions In A Tough Economy

Seems to be a number of stories these days on how the repossession sector is doing these days...

Here's one from the St. Louis Dispatch:

ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH

The tow truck driver rolls north on Lindbergh Boulevard, a cell phone to each ear, an elbow on the steering wheel, his head on a swivel.

On this night, he's headed for the Hazelwood apartment of a woman who is $964 behind on payments for her 2004 Mitsubishi Galant.

He scans the passing strip malls, parking lots and traffic looking for any of the other 211 vehicles on his list. Just tonight, he was handed names of seven new people who had property that lenders wanted seized. Bad times are busy times for the repo man.

"I feel sorry for people, but that car on the back feeds my family," he said. Click here to read the rest of the story.

And here's another from The Wall Street Journal:

SUMTER, S.C. -- You'd think these would be salad days for a repo man.

So why is Tony Cooper laying off tow-truck drivers, trying to sell his impound lot and wasting half the night chasing down a waitress and her lipstick-red 2002 Jeep Liberty?

Bad times for debtors, it turns out, aren't necessarily good times for debt collectors.

"People are doing everything they can now to hold onto what they've got," says Mr. Cooper, owner of Professional Auto Recovery LLC. "Do you think they're going to wait [around] to give up their cars? They hide them. They fight over them."

Click here for the full story.

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