Some fairly aggressive woman repossessing my neighbor's car as I type this

[alcibiades_mystery]

11:30 here in Chicago.

Tried to get into the building, and I told her no dice. Lady woke the kids up with her bullshit hissy fit. Come on, now.

Now she's out in the alley with the car blockaded yelling into a cell phone that "some guy is preventing me from having access." Well, yeah, lady, I don't know who the fuck you are and I'll be good and goddamned before I let you into my building at 25 to midnight.

Fuck this recession.

[gateley]

1. You did the right thing. Don't know if you did the legal thing, but you did the RIGHT thing. nt

[alcibiades_mystery]

5. She has no right to enter the premises

The doorbells have never worked, so you have to physically knock on the doors, but the doors are inside the building, behind the locked front door. She knocked on my window, since I'm on the first floor. I told her if it's a repossession issue, I'm not getting involved, and that means I'm not letting her in, since that would involve me. I tried to raise my neighbor myself after the repo person went out back, but no answer. I also told the repo person that nobody's stopping her from knocking on the back door (up the deck), so she should stop saying that I'm preventing access, since it ain't true.

I have nothing against this woman, I should add. She's doing her job. It's just a shitty situation all around, but I'm not a helping hand in this case.

[aquart]

21. What obligation do you have to open anything to her?

You don't know her.

[JDPriestly]

24. Did she show you a warrant?

[proud2BlibKansan]

2. Why does she need to get into the building to repo a car?

Is it parked in a living room?

And yes, you did the right thing.

[alcibiades_mystery]

6. See post 5

She was trying to contact the owner.

[proud2BlibKansan]

11. I didn't realize they contacted the owner when they repo a car

Shows what I know about repos. LOL

I guess I figured they snuck in and took the car without talking to the owner.

[Hassin Bin Sober]

16. Usually they put it on the hook and THEN contact the owner to remove belongings.

They are not required to make any contact but they sometimes do. If the car is blocked or locked they will make contact in hopes the customer knows the gig is up and hands the keys over.

I know repo people are a necessary evil but I never cared much for them. I used to work in an auto dealer car finance office and had one physically threaten me because I wouldn't tell them the location of a car that was traded in to us (the customer was several months behind when he traded). He pulled his pepper spray and threatened to spray me if I didn't let him see the file. He'll never know how close he was to being shot in the balls.

[alcibiades_mystery]

20. That was the case here.

The car was in the driveway, which leads out to a narrow alley. No way they could tow the thing out, so they really needed the keys.

[Radical Activist]

3. Good.

Did she show you any paperwork? Something identifying her as something other than a car thief? At this hour of night you can probably call the cops on her as a public nuisance.

[JDPriestly]

25. Strange time of day to be repossessing something, especially

on a Sunday night. There is really something suspicious about that.

[Hassin Bin Sober]

4. Tell her to leave. If she stays on private property, have her arrested.

I don't think she has a right to trespass and she CERTAINLY doesn't have the right to disturb the peace.

Who knows, you might get lucky and get a cop who had their car popped.

If you want to REALLY devious and evil, say you thought you saw a gun.

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

18. I like the way you think. -nt

[Sonoman]

7. Call the Po-lice

Really, if she has right to possess, let Johnny Law suss it out.

No shit, just call them. No harm done, either way.

Sonoman

[ProudToBeBlueInRhody]

8. You don't have to let her in

You have nothing to do with it. She probably assumes you are in cahoots with the guy. She's clearly a fucking moron at her job if she shows up in the middle of the night, making that much noise and needs to get in to repo a car. Call the cops.

[reggie the dog]

32. Why show up in the night? because the car is there at night???

[ProudToBeBlueInRhody]

33. I've always assumed repoing a car when one is likely asleep is smart

But knocking on the door to look for them?

[verdalaven]

34. Repos aren't always done at the home -

We had one of our employees have a car repo'ed out of the parking lot of our facility, in the middle of the day. They go where the car is......maybe they didn't know where this person worked? But, my opinion, better at home in the middle of the night, than at work, in full view of coworkers and the boss.

[JVS]

9. Any "castle law" in Chicago?

[murielm99]

10. What is that? n/t

[OneTenthofOnePercent]

13. How would castle law help?

It's not like the lady is trying to break into the house.
Obviously she's knocking & asking for permission to enter the building.

[tuckessee]

35. Why? Do you think repo people should be shot? n/t

[tularetom]

12. It's a shitty job but somebody has to do it I guess

I was a car repossessor for about 6 months while I was going to college. My wife made me find another job when she got pregnant because of all the crap I had to deal with. I had a guy pull a knife on me, had a cup of hot coffee thrown in my face, got in four or five fist fights with people who got a little belligerent at the prospect of having their car taken away.

In a way I was glad to get out of that line of work. I'm a big guy and I never felt particularly intimidated by any of the physical threats because I knew the people were just lashing out. But I think I was a little too softhearted to really be any good at it. I felt the sorriest for the people who just stood there and took it because they really had no way to fight back. More than once I lied to my boss about being able to find the people. Eventually I would have been fired I'm sure.

I don't even know what the rules are anymore, but back in the 60's it was pretty much the wild west. We could do more or less anything we wanted without fear of legal reprisal. It wasn't a fair fight IMO.

[Terra Alta]

14. I didn't even know it was legal to come at that time of night

to repossess a car.

Either way, you did the right thing.

[Abq_Sarah]

30. Generally

A vehicle can be repossessed at any time, day or night as long as it's not done illegally. They can't break into your garage to take a car but they can come on your property and remove it from the driveway or from the street, parking lots, etc..

[Skink]

15. This could be some nut case tea partier trying to reposses the country.

I'd be careful.

[alcibiades_mystery]

17. UPDATE

I went out back and asked the woman if I could take at least the kid's car seat out of the car, since they would need it to transport the kid anywhere, and she agreed.

They knocked on the back door, and the neighbor (who was having the car repo'ed) called the cops, because she's home alone and people don't knock on the back door. Then she came down to find us, since she was scared. My wife told her what was going on. I helped her take the carseat out and she removed her other items. The cops came and checked the paperwork, and they're taking the car now.

Once again, FUCK this recession.

[HEyHEY]

19. Give her access to some water from the hose

[JVS]

22. When the repo people come, do you want me to set your car on fire?

I can just imagine the look on their faces!

[HEyHEY]

23. Sa'll yers!

[Warren DeMontague]

26. Repo Man's Always Intense

[Edweird]

28. Love that movie. 'Diuretics', LOL

[intaglio]

31. Great Movie!!!

Real life Repo men, not so much

[Hannah Bell]

27. good for you. fuck the recession, & fuck the repo lady.

[Edweird]

29. Well, to be fair, I can't imagine a 'passive' person being a successful repo agent.

I was a debt collector for about a week a long long time ago. I'm aggressive and all that, but I also know what it's like to be broke.

[ulaes]

36. Sonia?