Buzz
According to Article 9 of the Uniform Commercial Code, security interest holders across all 50 US states typically have the right to repossess goods when a debtor defaults on their contractual commitments. What seems like a simple task for repo men and women is often a challenging one, fraught with unpredictable risks and dangers.
Some debtors react aggressively, prompting repossession agents to take extra precautions and employ creative methods to not only seize the goods but also ensure their own safety. On the flip side, many repo men have shown a level of cold-heartedness. The following ten tales highlight a mix of disastrous repossessions, featuring bizarre and wildly unexpected events.
10. The Art of Deception
Repo men often face significant obstacles that make it nearly impossible to fulfill their repossession contracts. With many unpredictable and fiercely protective debtors, agents often resort to clever tricks to execute the perfect, and most importantly, discreet repossession. Take Max Hardberger, for example, a specialist in ship recovery operating in some of the most perilous ports worldwide. During Haiti's rebellion in 2004, the former ship captain managed to repossess a 10,000-ton cargo ship from a chaotic and hostile harbor. His secret weapon? Voodoo. Understanding the prevalence of the syncretic religion in the region, Hardberger enlisted a voodoo priest to intentionally divert the attention of the debtors, giving him a perfect opportunity to take possession of their vessel.
In regions with corrupt or ineffective governments, Hardberger often enlists the help of prostitutes. “I use prostitutes a lot,” Hardberger explained. “They are great actresses. They have to be.” For these operations, he instructs the women to board the ship under the guise of romantic interest, in order to gather critical information about the ship’s operations. Details such as the number of crew members, guards, remaining fuel, and working generators are reported back to Hardberger, who then uses this intel to plan a precise and successful repossession.
9. The Pregnant Repo
When Kevin Brian Federwisch arrived at a home in Houston in 2005 to repossess a 1994 Chevrolet truck, it seemed like the perfect scenario. The truck was already in the driveway with the engine running. Seizing the opportunity, Federwisch quickly took the truck and began driving away. At that moment, 36-year-old Rhonda Bland, who happened to be nine months pregnant, dashed out of the house and leaped into the bed of the truck. As Federwisch continued down the road, ignoring her frantic pounding on the cab, Bland's husband called the police, accusing the repo man of kidnapping his wife. Eventually, Federwisch stopped at a gas station to let her out. Although Bland was reportedly unhurt, she was taken to the hospital for labor pains. Federwisch, 31, was arrested for unlawful restraint and reckless driving.
In a similarly outrageous incident in 2012, 21-year-old Sophia E. Davidson, eight months pregnant, took things to an extreme level. As her SUV was being repossessed, Davidson climbed into the tow truck and sped off. Reaching speeds of 105 km/h (65 mph), five police cars pursued her as she swerved through traffic. “I’ve never chased anybody driving a tow truck with a car on the back of it,” said Lt. Michael Mareno. After driving nearly 13 kilometers (8 miles), both rear tires of the truck blew out, causing Davidson to crash both vehicles into a house. She was arrested for felony theft and fleeing the police.
8. The Repo Home
In June 2016, 66-year-old Andrew Jackson Higdon III was hired to replace a woman’s roof in Louisiana. After agreeing verbally that he would only be paid once her insurance company issued a check, Higdon grew frustrated six months later and began demanding full payment. Rejecting her suggested payment plan, the enraged roofer threatened to repossess her roof if the debt wasn’t settled promptly. True to his word, Higdon followed through on his vengeful threat just three days before Christmas. In the aftermath, heavy rainstorms damaged the roofless house, resulting in an estimated $11,500 in damages. However, his satisfaction was short-lived, as he was arrested for criminal damage to property and trespassing.
It might be better to have no roof than to have no home at all. Just ask Jo and Lonnie Harrison from Texas, who, in the summer of 2018, arrived at their vacation cabin to find it missing. “Who steals a house?” Jo Harrison asked. “It’s really hard to comprehend that the house is actually gone. That someone took it away.” According to Sergeant Larry Shiver, who investigated the empty lot, “I’ve never had a house reported stolen in my career.” The Harrisons later learned that their cabin had been repossessed and moved. Whether they will ever get their vacation home back remains uncertain.
7. Strange Finds
It’s not uncommon for repo men to discover unusual items in the vehicles they reclaim. While most of these items are ignored, every once in a while, they uncover something truly shocking. Such was the case in Salt Lake City in 2012, when workers discovered pipe bombs in the trunk of a repossessed truck. After bomb squads detonated the devices, a SWAT team raided the home of 29-year-old Michael John Owens, who was later arrested on charges of possessing explosives.
As disturbing as that was, it pales in comparison to a chilling discovery made by employees at All-Star Recovery in Memphis, Tennessee, in 2017. While inventorying a repossessed Chevy Malibu, workers opened the trunk and were horrified to find a bloated, decomposing corpse inside.
The deceased was later identified as 42-year-old Anitra Summerville. Shortly after, the coroner suggested that foul play might have been involved in her death, although the public had already drawn that obvious conclusion. The case remains open to this day.
6. A Heartbreaking Blow
In an astonishingly cruel turn of events in 2017, Wayne and Crystal Leatherman found themselves facing a financial crisis, not over a repossessed car, but over their child's gravestone. The grieving parents, who had lost their five-year-old son Jake to leukemia the previous year, had fallen behind on payments, prompting Reverend J.C. Shoaf of Southeastern Monument Company to repossess the headstone. The Leathermans only discovered the repossession when they visited their child’s grave and found the plot bare. “He repossessed it, just like a car,” Crystal Leatherman told WBTV. “This is my lowest point.”
In a business world where profit trumps empathy, Mathison Motors in Clearwater, Minnesota, showed just how cold-hearted things could be. In 2015, while attending a family funeral, Wayne and Amber Walberg’s Chrysler Town and Country minivan was repossessed from the parking lot as the couple mourned inside. Among the personal items in the vehicle, including social security cards and birth certificates, was the urn containing the ashes of their infant son, Zach. Despite their heartfelt pleas for the return of their son’s remains, the Walbergs were told they had 24 to 48 hours to pay $350 if they wished to reclaim the urn. The dealership’s heartless stance led the Walbergs to take their story to the local media, where the community responded with widespread outrage.
In a twist, the Walbergs were reunited with their son’s ashes the very next day. Additionally, Mathison Motors returned the rest of their belongings free of charge in an attempt to quell public outrage. Reverend J.C. Shoaf also faced the fallout from his actions, commenting, “We’d very much like to return the grave marker to Woodlawn Cemetery and thank the media for helping resolve this. The family won’t owe us anything; we will mark their bill as paid in full.”
5. A Ride Like No Other
In 2009, 59-year-old Helen Walker, notorious for her unpaid debts, heard a disturbance outside her Staten Island home. Realizing that her car was being repossessed, she sprang into action and jumped behind the wheel of her sedan. With the car in gear and the gas pedal pressed to the floor, Walker sped off in a reckless attempt to run down the repo man. In a scene straight out of a Hollywood action film, the agent was thrown onto the hood of the car, where he desperately clung to it as Walker swerved wildly through the neighborhood. Despite her crazy driving, the repo man held on for ten blocks before the police managed to intervene.
After what must have felt like an eternity, the car finally came to a halt, much to the relief of the repo agent. Seconds later, the agent’s feet hit the ground while Walker was being read her rights. Miraculously, the repo man only suffered minor injuries despite the terrifying ordeal. As for Walker, her valiant efforts to stop the repossession failed, and she was arrested on assault charges while her car was still repossessed.
4. The Funeral Fiasco
Devastated by the death of his mother-in-law, a man from Kent, England, took it upon himself to handle the funeral arrangements, hoping to ease the burden on his wife. However, before the woman’s body had even cooled, the process of organizing the services quickly turned into a nightmare. Almost immediately, Butterfly Funeral Services stopped returning his calls, adding even more stress to an already difficult situation for the grieving family.
After days of silence from the undertaker, the frustrated mourner decided to take matters into his own hands to ensure his loved one received a proper farewell. Armed with a rented van, he snuck into the mortuary and retrieved his grandmother’s fragile body right in the middle of the day. He later explained, “I had no choice. I had to get the body out.” Without informing his wife, he nonchalantly transported the remains to another funeral home, treating it like a regular errand.
Reports suggest that local authorities were aware of the man’s plans but chose not to intervene or press charges. In a twist of fate, Butterfly Funeral Services went bankrupt, leading to the repossession of the funeral home. In total, 16 urns filled with remains were found on a shelf as bailiffs conducted an inventory. Efforts to reunite families with their loved ones' remains are still ongoing.
3. The Rescue
In April 2010, just outside Dublin, Ireland, Patrick Mulvey and Justin Tighe arrived at 58-year-old Donal Connaughton’s pig farm to repossess two power washers and a generator. Almost immediately, they were met with hostility from Connaughton, who refused to surrender the machinery. What began as a verbal exchange quickly escalated into a violent physical altercation, with several of Connaughton’s farmhands joining in. Outnumbered, Mulvey and Tighe were soon overpowered. When they tried to leave, they realized their nightmare was far from over.
Calling the repo men agents of the Devil, an enraged Connaughton attached a backhoe to their tow truck, trapping them in place. Mulvey and Tighe were then presented with two choices: face a gruesome death at the hands of Connaughton, or strip completely and walk away in humiliation. Things only escalated when they refused to comply, infuriating Connaughton further. As they begged for their freedom, Connaughton brought out a black wild boar, insisting that they enter its pen with the animal. “Go ahead, be a man, strip down and get in with the boar,” Connaughton yelled, adding ominously that the boar would “show them what happens to inmates in prison.”
After what seemed like an eternity of torment, Connaughton finally agreed to release the men—on one condition: they had to kneel and pray. Eager to escape, Mulvey and Tighe complied, and Connaughton, now in a somewhat calmer mood, told them they had caught him on “a good day.”
On November 11, 2013, Connaughton was sentenced to 12 months behind bars after being convicted of two counts of false imprisonment, making threats to cause serious harm, assault, and criminal damage.
2. A Tragic Waste
In the late hours of May 2016, Brennan and Ashleigh Best were startled by a knock at the door. To their shock, it was Kenneth Drew, a 50-year-old repossession agent from Utah, arriving to seize their SUV. A tense argument quickly ensued between Kenneth and Brennan, but the tension eased when they struck a deal: to retain the vehicle, Brennan agreed to pay the outstanding balance and provide proof of payment within the next few days.
Though the matter seemed to be resolved, things escalated when Kenneth saw Ashleigh speeding out of the driveway. Before the deal was made, Brennan had instructed Ashleigh to leave. This enraged Kenneth, who felt as if he’d been deceived. Furious, he quickly gave chase.
Driving recklessly down the street, Kenneth caught up with Ashleigh and began pushing the tow truck’s rear tire into her car’s door. At over 80 kilometers per hour (50 mph), Ashleigh lost control, causing the SUV to jump a curb and crash head-on into a tree. The 35-year-old mother of two was pronounced dead at the scene. Eight months later, Kenneth Drew pled guilty to manslaughter and was sentenced to one to 15 years in prison.
1. A Tragic Mistake
In 2011, Leo Song reversed his truck into a driveway in Southern California, unaware that his actions would soon change his life forever. While lifting a Buick, Lisa Via emerged from her mobile home, begging him not to repossess her car. Unable to grant her wish, Song proceeded with the repossession, hooking up the vehicle and preparing to leave. As he began pulling out, he heard the anguished cries of Lisa’s husband, causing him to slam on the brakes. Tragically, Lisa had stepped between the truck and the car, and was crushed to death.
In 1994, a heartbreaking incident unfolded involving Georgia resident Nabil Malouf. After hearing from a colleague that his silver Mercury Cougar was being repossessed, Malouf rushed to the parking lot to intervene. The repo men, uninterested in any confrontation, climbed into their truck and began driving off with the car hitched to the back. Undeterred, Malouf attempted to leap onto the back of the truck but lost his footing, falling to the ground and being run over. In the aftermath of his tragic death, it was revealed that an internal mix-up at Malouf’s bank had mistakenly marked his car as overdue, when in fact, the Mercury had already been paid off.
