Posted on 04/25/2013 2:08:35 PM PDT by nickcarraway
“About a million years ago, I went to repossess some equipment for the company I was Credit mgr. for. The guy (biggest dude I ever saw!) pulled a pistol on me and knocked our shop boss to the ground. So I left and called the cops. They refused to even talk to the guy. They did nothing, would not allow us to press charges. I hope it’s not that way in most places.”
I talked to a guy at the gym in Panama City who worked as a repo-man for his company. If they didn’t give him the item he’d get the local Sheriff’s detectives to go get it. They would threated the perp with jail and they always got it. When I tried to find out the process required to do that, he was very cagy. I gathered that this wasn’t something the Sheriff did as part of their regular duties. I don’t know, and he wouldn’t say, whether they were using their badges off-duty for cash (or favors, or whatever.)
Anybody else know how this works? Because if a business could have the Sheriff reposes stuff, why hire a repo man?
It is part of the Sheriff’s normal job to carry out judgments and repossessions.
I had a store tenant who stiffed me on $3k rent - I won a judgment in court, and the local sheriffs came to his new location with a loading truck and some movers and loaded up his store for auction to pay the debt.
He came up with the $3K the next day.
They don’t always like to do it, but you can get them to if they are not busy or on a boring day.
“They don’t always like to do it, but you can get them to if they are not busy or on a boring day.”
This guy was using Sheriff’s detectives to repossess things like laptops. I don’t think he was getting judgments as it would be too much effort for the frequent and small dollar items. Also, Panama City is tiny and everybody knew everybody else. The powers that be in politics had been the same families forever. I was thinking it was one of those good old boy family things. (Detectives here can’t be bothered with little crime. It actually has to be political if there isn’t a body laying on the ground.)
I am not sure what she did was actually illegal. The Florida statute allows you to use deadly force to defend your property. Did she know they were repossessors? If not, then maybe it was legal.
Well ... you can always sit in the car and wait for the police to come ... LOL ...
If that’s true then it is just common theft and they should all be prosecuted.
Sherrif’s cannot force it without a court order
“Because if a business could have the Sheriff reposes stuff, why hire a repo man?”
I can only speak for Florida, but the way it works is that you hire a lawyer, the lawyer files a lawsuit, gets a court order, and the clerk of the court issues a writ of replevin. All that costs money, I would say about one or two thousand dollars, or more if there is any opposition.
Then the sheriff takes the writ, goes down to where the defendant has the stuff that needs to be seized, and seizes it. If it’s not there, then you need to find it and tell the sheriff where it is.
It takes time and money. Or you can just hire a repo guy and he goes out and does it, charges you several hundred dollars if it’s easy to do. So why would you not always hire a repo guy instead of using the sheriff? Because the repo guy can’t do anything that would “breach the peace.” He can’t use force. He can’t break and enter. He can’t even trespass. All the lady needed to do was tell them to leave, and if they didn’t leave, that would have been breaching the peace.
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