IAMA Repoman for lost merchandise for a large rent to own company and every year so far I have had to take presents from under the tree with the kids crying and watching... AMA

• When repossessing items that are within someones home, how do you go about the legality of entering the home to take it?

• Have you ever been forced to repossess something, but due to the person(s)/family's condition, chose not to (ie, seen that someone hadn't had a Christmas in a while and chose to walk out like your partner)? What are the repercussions for doing something like that?

• What is the most expensive item you've been forced to Repo? The least expensive? (monetary value if you can't say what the item was)

• How many repos do you do in an average day or week?

• Are you paid hourly, commission, or a combination of both?

• Unfortunately, in your line of work, as you said, people wanting to physically intimidate or hurt you are part of the job. Has anyone ever taken it further? Have you ever been required to phyisically defend yourself from an attacker? If it isn't too shocking or personal, could you tell us what happened?

I think that's all the questions I have for the moment, I hope you get a chance to answer them, and thank you very much regardless of if you do.

• knock and pound door till they enter. If not, call police, lawyers, get certified letters, and kick open door. Take items and denial plausibility... That's really how this functions in some places. Not all...

• see below for bed ridden woman post.. I almost got fired and did get written up. They ended up getting it back when they called hr but the manager was not happy at all. He still thinks it's my fault they called and he got in trouble.

• see below for the drug raid/major 5 person-one house repo. Least value was a broken laptop I was forced to raise hell to take.

• several. Depends on "credit numbers" and sales we have. If numbers look bad they sick the dogs out... Im actually leaving in a sec to do some. Posting is slow for me... But when im home il be available.

• hourly. $10.75. I did get stabbed once. Then another woman tried to say i came onto her and harassed her causing me to be transferred. She was the sister of a repo I had arrested and kids taken away. When i went by one time her sister answered and i knew it was bad news. That's all I can say about that one. Also there has been a time I was stabbed

I did get stabbed once.....Also there has been a time I was stabbed

but have u been STABBED?

Lol fucking phone error

• usually is knock, pound and whatever it takes. And maybe get the door open somehow... Get the stuff back and have my partner or whoever walk away for plausible deniability... If the manager or anyone is called not much they can do.

• see below post about bed ridden woman on oxygen... I got wrote up and almost fired

• see below post of drug raid and 5 person-1 house repo... Cheapest one was a laptop completely smashed and old... I had to raise hell to get back.

*several times a day. I'm on them right now...

• I've been stabbed before. But the biggest one was the sister of a repo that i had her kids taken away when the cops came and saw they were living in a bad spot. I knocked and her sister answered and the girl who was supposed to be in jail was there and saw me. She smiled and i knew it was a bad place... I had to be transferred due to some issues that started afterwards

Good questions

[deleted]

Lol the one horse sized duck. I'd fly it back. 100 little damn horses would be like chasing a sea of chihuahuas

do you ever feel joy taking presents from kids. i know i would

One time. They were bad bad kids. As in one was just out of juvi at age 14...He didn't need an Xbox or a macbook

/r/justiceporn will cum for something like this.

Link back to me and cross post it! I can't on my phone!

I'm on my phone too D: someone help!!

dont worry guys i'll handle th.... FUCK IM ON MY PHONE!! HALP!

I'll do it!

edit: FUCK I WAS BANNED

Jesus... I'll try. I dunno how but ill do what I can

• done!

Thank you for making my Halo 4 experience better

You're welcome. But maybe we need more yellers in the game. It's been silent for me on there and on black ops 2

And the other times?

Some people who've tried to sell stuff for crack and lowlife who have tried to steal from us who were running from car repo places

How does it make you feel when you take kids presents and how do other people react seeing you take items

I feel bad. There has been some bad times on Xmas eve I had to take some. The kids were crying and it definitely looked like they hadn't had a Christmas in awhile. They were crying and my partner walked out cause she couldn't handle that. I did it and 6 others that day and went home, and almost killed myself that night.

People react differently All the time. In harder neighborhoods I usually have to have a partner or police assistance due to neighbors and onlookers wanting to fight, shoot or stab me. They look at me like the devil... Like I'm a terrorist or villain. Like i was taking the very souls those renters had.

Have you thought about getting into another line of work because of this? Also, how did you end up doing it in the first place and what keeps you there?

Very much yes. I've barged into people's homes while they were eating and taken the dinner table dude...

I got here cause I lost my job before and this place offered me more and waaayyyy more hours. Sad thing is because of it, I can no longer go to school. 8am to 8pm daily... And soon to be 9pm cause the high ups only care about their numbers and wanna go on a cruise to the Bahamas and a trip to Hawaii...

What keeps me there is bills. I want another job but can't take one that will pay me less. My bills now and payments I have to make are just able to be satisfied by my check here.

If a repo man can't afford his own stuff, does he just bring it back?

Epiphany rave guy reporting lol

How can you legally barge into a home ? ?

Depends on the state. I repo cars from time to time, and in my state I have to leave if the person even comes outside and asks me to leave their property. Police can't help either, it's a "peaceful repossession" state.

I can't imagine trying it someplace like Texas, where someone on your property "stealing" something is legal justification to shoot them without further warning.

In certain areas our red and blue shirts cannot be worn or we have to carry different ones due to gangs and being shot at om sight. Though there are times the vehicles are shot at just because.

Most interesting Repo job?

My second week on the job was driving up to ask for payment and a new phone number. Repo was not the intent nor the option. She answered the door, yelled no (like a darth Vader noooo) then slammed the door. Sat there and pounded till she aimed a shotgun out the Window... As a county Sherriff drove by and saw it...

At that point, I sat back and watched. Soon all my crew was out here and we cleaned out their house as they sat and watched yelling and the k9 barking. They had previously assaulted rental people from Aarons and had a breathalyzer on their car for driving and was wanted in ties to some big murder that was happening 2 counties over...

It's interesting to see if I WOULD have lived past that day if the cop hadn't drove by

1. Have you met any real assholes in which you were thinking "I am glad I am taking this guys stuff?"

2. What would you say is the most expensive thing you've had to repossess?

3. What is the most absurd thing you've had to repossess?

1. Yes. He has actually shot paintball and air soft at our trucks while driving by and always calls up to make payments or calls our hr and complaint lines when we don't fix his shit cause he is late or won't pay us or answer her calls.

2. There was a group that had some huge LED tvs, and 2 mac books and a dj music system with mixing tables and some android tablets. These people were 4 different people and they were all working together and living together. Tried moving with the stuff and never talked to us again. We tracked them down (which we are very good at) and showed up with police and since in michigan its a felony to move (larceny by conversion) they were arrested and we cleaned house. It helped they were cooking meth and had heroin in there too. Cps came for the kids too. Bad bad day. Guns, all that.

3. I've had to take a bed from a bed ridden woman. I wouldn't help, so I was almost fired and written up when my partner called our boss and had to get soe other guys to help. The woman was on oxygen and couldn't move after heart surgery

How did they get the bed? Pick her up and lay her on the floor?

I am surprised your partner would do that, if she died it would have been a clear crime.

I stood outside. I don't know. I don't care. I apologized and almost walked off that day. Since then I'm an empty husk of a human.

How much do u make a year? or is it by how much you repo that you get paid?

I get about 27k a year

That's wretched =(

Sucks very badly... Not nearly enough for the shit we do. I've hurt my back many times as well moving studf

You can make more than that at a chain restaurant as a waiter...food for thought.

I wanna slim up. Plus I have been talking to some people about being an insurance agent...

For 10 hour days?! That is criminal. How do they get away with paying you so little?

I used to work for one of these RTO places. They get around it by calling you an "Account Manager" so that they can pay you salary and work the dog shit out of you.

Op, I'd really recommend you look into doing collections for a financial institution, surprisingly that time you spend on the phone chasing these people down when they are 7+ transitions into a much nicer paycheck for someone who actually appreciates what you do for them.

Really? Could you maybe pm me some info to do this? I'm sure you did the same for awhile. And yeah... Account manager but I'm not salary. Just justifiable overtime by 50 to 55 hour weeks

Here in Kansas City Andre Rison was notorious for renting from Rent-A-Center and then never making a payment. A friend of mine's dad was a process server and served him papers after the items were repossessed. Have you ever repoed from someone famous? Along the same lines how many of your repos are from people who obviously can afford the items they just try and game the system for a few weeks for a party or whatever?

We have rented to a summer house for an actor in South haven, michigan one time. Can't remember his name, but he usually plays mobsters. I think he was in the movie Payback. It wasn't a repo but I hear he's a cool cat. Beautiful house.

More times than I can count, they are from someone who can obviously afford them. There is a guy currently who rents stuff, never pays on time, and constantly gives us problems and says we are harassing him for money. He drives a brand new Mercedes suv, newer lexus and one of those new Cadillac ctsv cars (the real sport coupes) and lives in a $200,000 house and usually is at his summer house which is just as large and expensive.

It's probably a terrible feeling, but you're acting responsible, and holding down a job. Probably more than the idiots you take from can say.

Don't feel too bad Mr. Grinch

TIL I am The Grinch

do you sometimes ask the people trivia questions and if they answer 3 out 5 correctly they get to keep their stuff?

I have done this once. I was filed complaints on when they answered wrong and I took it. I was written up for toying with their intelligence.

Have you ever come across a situation where you would not go ahead with the repossession due to an extremely special circumstance? What would it take for you to not repossess in that situation?

I don't think I've come across things like that. But I've taken things from dying people, crime scenes, while cps is there and even from someone who was at a funeral... I had to actually say "show me a death certificate" when they said they couldn't pay cause they had to pay for a funeral.

What was the point of seeing the death certificate? Would the fact that they had to pay for a funeral stop you from taking the item you went to repossess?

Yes. It's covered under liability and benefits

Obviously dangerous, any close calls with violent reactions? How'd you get out of them?

I worked repo in the Philly/Trenton region. One day on a call for a rental place I had to stop at an apartment complex in the close suburbs. It was originally built (I think) in the post-war boom years as worker housing for a near by aircraft plant. A real pre-fab, brutalist, concrete-and-brick veneer, tiny windowed shithole. Since then its become a de-facto public housing project. All section 8, the only difference from inner city projects is the amount of grass and that the buildings are only 3 or 4 stories. The driveway to the complex parking lot is fairly long, maybe 100 yards. Plenty of time for the dozen or so adults and kids to disappear. This was common, the places we repo'ed from often would learn what our trucks looked like and made sure they weren't around when we showed up. I was alone that day; work pants and a plain shirt, clipboard, walkietalkie. I've spent the majority of my life living in predominately non-white neighborhoods so being the only white guy around is something I'm completely comfortable with. This day was different; it was a cold and very bright late winter's day and as I walked the eighth of a mile (it's a HUGE courtyard) from the parking lot to the very back building I could feel a multitude of eyes just boring into me. It was a disconcerting feeling being so watched, despite the utter barren and empty look of the complex.

I climb the stairs to the very top floor of the very last building and knock on the door, completely expecting no answer. To my surprise, the woman opens up right away and invites me in. It's very dark inside, and it smells very dirty and faintly like burned chemicals. She offers me a drink, I decline, and then she asks me how much she owes. It was a little over 600 dollars. Like $627. I tell her we're already past that point and the store wants the items back, but I can call the manager. (I knew they'd want cash if I could get it.) Sure enough they do, and she pays me $600 in cash, all in wrinkled tens, from a big pile of money on the living room table. Not $627, but $600 even, despite clearly having enough. She's very polite to me and the manager, and thanks me when I write out her receipt. I say goodbye, and turn to leave, already slightly annoyed at the prospect of such a long walk back to the car with such a large wad of cash in my pocket. I remember being thankful no one was around to see me get the money, something I'd never thought before while doing repo. I get down about a flight of stairs, maybe two, when I hear it...

"YEAH, TAKE MY MONEY YOU MOTHERFUCKING ASSHOLE. I PAY MY BILLS, BUT LETS SEE YOU GET TO YOU CAR CARRYING SIX HUNDRED FUCKING DOLLARS IN CASH, MOTHERFUCKER!"

Suddenly doors everywhere pop open and heads peek out. The floor i'm on is just an old woman in one door and a kid in the other. I can see a young guy, maybe 20, looking up from the stairwell below. When I get to his floor, he's in is apartment, but door open, just staring at me. The woman above is still screaming.

"...SIX HUNDRED DOLLARS. CASH. I ALREADY GOT MY RECEIPT, MOTHERFUCKER..."

I've had guns and knives pulled on me. Been jumped in highschool. Taken the wrong alley at the wrong time. Once ended up on a subway car, alone, at 3am with two dozen Bloods in a bad mood. But I've never been as nervous as I was that day. The walk back to the car was just as cold, windy, and eerie. But now there that multitude of eyes watching me was visible. People were everywhere, outside, in doorways, in windows. Two hundred sets of eyes, all watching me, no one saying a word.

No one except the woman I had collected from, who continued her screaming the entire time. Her voice fading to just a muffled moan on the February wind by the time I made it back to the truck.

Sounds like my time in benton harbor and other places... I feel for you man... I do...

I've had guns pulled on me and 5 people tried to beat me up over an Xbox. I have to call police as soon as shit like that happens...

They will not let us carry... But i always have a few knives on me

The hate this guy is getting is pathetic & sad; TIL in the new America you have a right to the latest gizmos & stuff without paying for it & if someone comes to rightfully take it back they're the one that is evil, not the people with an entitlement mentality.

It running joke with the older guys that I have work with since I get along better with them instead of the younger guys is that we are delivering the things to people who can't afford them and I can't even afford yet they have no job and don't work for the money since I need you to geordie of our customers that we say this about are only on state assistance or SSI or welfare

I... punctuation.. I really can not figure out what you just said.

My voice thing on my phone doesn't use punctuation so i can talk while im driving.

I was trying to say that the thing that keeps us all going is the jokes that some people tell us or the ones we make about the shitty times and the bad customers we have.

But i hate delivering the expensive shit to the dumbasses who buy the big ticket items, and blow their welfare money and state assistance on it, when its tax money that we get taken out for us...It sucks. We pay for their shit while they sit at home and do nothing and smoke all day.

How does typical repo gig work? Are you given a list of items/addresses and told to recover them by the end of the day?

I have to first try to collect money. Then if they don't wanna pay, cause problems or piss off our boss, he makes us pick it up.

Has anyone ever destroyed something out of spite before you could pick it up?

Yes! Alot of times! I've had someone throw a reclining sofa out a third story Window and smash into splinters when it landed on their car. It was amazing justice. They tried saying we did it. It tasted sweet... Their tears, that is.

Once my sister left an IPAD on a flight home. Someone picked it up and took it home with them. She was able to get the address through iCloud. It ended up being in Washington D.C. My sister has a friend who is a lawyer in the DC area and tried to go pick it up with someone else. Guy answers the door and they politely ask to have the IPAD back. Guy says "Oh you can have it back." Comes back with a hammer and the iPAD and smashes the screen in front of them. Only a buster screen, so my sisters friend says she would still like to have it back. Guys goes, "Oh i've got something better." Goes back inside the house. My sisters friend and her buddy look at each other and go, "gun." And took off. A detective came by trying to figure it all out, but nothing ever became of it.

TL;DR Evil guy smashes found iPAD for no good reason when owners friend tries to reclaim it.

yeah, basically assholes like this is what i have encountered before.

I hate people. And this job is making me hate people.

Sorry this isn't a question but my brother in law did this line of work for quite a while and he told me plenty of stories so you have my respect for being able and willing to deal with the type of people / home that you do. They signed the contract knowing that they have to pay xxx dollars, hopefully the people you repo from will at least learn to live within their budget.

Now the question, what's the worst house you have ever had to repo from in terms of disgusting living conditions (hoarder home or just a trash house)

Good god... There is alot. The worst was where the roaches covered everything and the floor moved. The dog was eating mouthfuls of them. And they got a fridge and a dryer. You could smell this house two blocks away. Omg I hated that place.

Anyone know an easy way to post pictures to prove IAMA?

Ever get offered sex from a hot chick in exchange for not taking her stuff?

No. But it has been done several times in the past to people I work with. Couch payments they call them.

Do you feel guilty doing what you do? Have you ever considered leaving the job at all?

Every day...

Are you like Emilio Esteves in Repoman? If so, how do I become like you?

Lolwut

Whats the coolest present you ever repo-ed? Have you ever thought of keeping an item?

Can never keep shit. They check serials and scan bar codes when it leaves and is brought back

I never thought this would flare up this much! Thank you all for the questions! I'll be here again later tonight after work at about 8 or 9est. I might do a video question thing if people would be interested in that kinda stuff. But i definitely will be here to say more. I haven't even scratched the surface of shit they do.

I'm tired of this place. If they fire me, I get unemployment pay and time to find a new job full time.

How are these people late on payments before the gift is even given?

First payment allows it to leave the store. Then they keep making payments. Always ALWAYS do your 90 day same as cash plan... Trust me...

have you ever felt bad enough to where you maybe turned a blind eye and left some of the things you were supposed to take?

Once. Prolly best not to say but they did come make a payment and I got them all their things back to them. Those kids weren't sleeping on the floor

What happens to product that is repo'd? I assume product is liquidated and then funds sent to the lien holder. How and who liquidates it?

Refurbed and resold or sent to another store... Yep

Do you find yourself repoing from the same people several times? Are there places you get a job for that make you think "shit, that house again"?

Lol sadly yes