The Longest Repo

Time for another repo story. I cannot do a proper setting here, because this one was over a year in the making.

This started in the spring of 2000 - I was a Management Trainee at the time. A car was rented to a renter on an insurance claim.

Two months later, the car could not be found and the renter was unable to be reached. The insurance company had long since stopped paying as the renter's personal car was finished at the repair shop.

Shortly after this, I was promoted to another location and, due to the move, never learned what happened to that rental. I was waist deep in new repo's!

In April of 2001, I was promoted back to the Covington Pike location. I never checked on the status of that old rental because it was way past 90 days old (when contracts usually lapsed into thin air). And the car was not on the books anymore (corporate took cars off the books that were considered stolen, as this one was).

About a month later, when renting to a nice lady for a weekend special, she said something that struck me as odd. We were walking around the vehicle, checking for any pre-existing damage. She asked me:
"Do all of your rental cars have that little green 'E' on them?"

"Yes, ma'am, they do." I replied.

She went on to tell me she knew where a car was that we "might want back." This roused my curiosity. I got the details, to the extent she could provide them.

Later that day, I pulled up to this farm house in a rural area north of Memphis. I knocked on the door and asked the homeowner if there was a car in the barn out to the side of the house. The homeowner indicated that there was one that had been there for many months, and that he figured we might soon come looking for it.

We go out to the barn and I see the rental car from the repo attempt from last year. The car is in great shape. Of course, at the time, I did not have a key, so I wrote down the numbers (VIN & license plate) and returned to the branch. I made sure to get the property owner's permission to come back to get the car.

With the key in hand, I returned to the location. The car was wedged into this barn. There was maybe 6 inches clearance past the mirrors on each side. I could not get in the car through the doors. I don't think a small child could have.

Thinking the former renter had probably pushed the car in there, since the doors could not open enough in the barn, I tried pushing it out. No luck. Then I saw the gear selector was in "Park."

Finally, I had an idea. I opened the trunk, pushed the back seat down, and crawled through the car, up to the front seat.

Anybody who knows me is laughing at the thought of that picture - I am 6'3" and 275 pounds.

I start the car and pull out carefully.

The ride home was scary - the plates were naturally expired. The car had been reported on the hot sheet a year prior. If I got pulled over, I knew I'd get locked up for a little while. In anticipation of this, I had brounght my business cards, as well as my manager's business cards.

Nothing happened - we took the car to the local administrative offices. The car was sold, after being taken off the hot sheet.

And I had performed the longest repo I'd ever heard of. Of course, as soon as I had realized it was a repo situation, it had taken me less than one business day to get it back!