My first repo

This story by request.

Setting: Dyersburg, TN - June 1999. I have just been hired by Enterprise. Previously, I had worked for a rent-to-own place, so repossession was not foreign to me at all!

My manager, Rich, learns this over lunch and he tells me that he wants me to help him repo a car. At the time, we didn't really go over details of why we did a repo or when. Rich explained that this was generally up to the manager of each Enterprise location, with a few broad guidelines.

Rich also explained, as was his way, that there was really only one reason we would ever repo a car - only if the customer owed money. Made sense to me. I learned later, as Rich predicted I would, what circumstances generally happened leading up to a repo.

But this day, I was wide-eyed and full of wonder.

The vehicle was a nice Chevy pickup truck. The renter lived a bit of a drive away from the branch - 30 minutes or so. We drove to the house, and Rich taught me the 2 most fundamental rules of a repo:
1. Never leave until the person doing the repo leaves.
2. Stay behind the person doing the repo on the drive back. There might be problems with the car.

I executed the two, and Rich picked up the truck. There was really not a lot to it. Of course, later I asked many questions, and Rich answered them quite well. Doing repos in the rent-to-own world were quite different. As Rich taught me, doing them with keys in hand to a car was another story altogether.

Rich felt I had an advantage because in rent-to-own, we had to gain access to the person's house to do the repo, but that was rarely the case with a rental car. These days, though, with chip-keys and the like, I bet the Enterprise folk have to get the customer to hand over the keys, or get the car towed. I don't think that would be as much fun.