Repo Girl or A Brush With Danger for Theme Thursday

I've had lots of brushes with danger in my life. Just this afternoon I cleaned the refrigerator! Any food item so old that you cannot properly identify it is certainly dangerous! LOL! But the most interesting brush with danger would have to be my day job in the 80's as a repo girl....

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Over the past couple of weeks the subject of my having been in the repo business has surfaced several times. I have mentioned it in passing before, but I thought I'd share my unique job experience with you in a little more detail.

I got married right out of college and landed a job with General Motors back in 1984. I worked there for 10 years, doing anything from recording credit applications , running credit reports, processing refinancing agreements and yes, I even did 18 months out 'in the field,' repossessing cars!

Now normally, when people cannot pay their car payments, they call and work something out. But that small percentage that refused to communicate, refused to pay and actually hid from us....well, they got assigned to people like me! This was before the Internet and we did a lot of foot work...visiting their homes, nearest relatives, neighbors, making lots of phone calls, visiting them at work and looking for the car!

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I learned all the makes and models of GM cars...able to identify them just from little things like their tail lights. Did you know that the brake light shown in the rear window began in 1991? :) I learned how to sweet talk friends and neighbors into giving me the information I needed. And I could even sweet talk delinquent customers into peacefully handing over the money or their car......sometimes. :)

The few customers who refused to pay and actually hid were the real challenge. I learned to cut keys so I could drive a car away when it was spotted. Let me tell you, there is nothing more thrilling than finding a car that is incredibly past due, especially if you have searched the entire city for weeks and your boss is breathing down your neck! There is also nothing more terrifying than actually getting in the car and driving away! You pray that the keys you cut actually unlock the door and fit in the ignition so you can go! And you pray that nobody is watching you that could run outside and cause a scene! This was before cell phones...at least supplied by GM...so after driving away...and breathing again, I'd find a pay phone. First call was to the police so the customer wouldn't think it was stolen. Second call was to the boss, telling him "Yes! I'm actually sitting in it right now!"

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There were those times when the keys didn't work! Or the key codes weren't available to cut keys in the first place. In those cases we called a tow truck. Certain towing services were familiar with working with us and I became friends with at least a couple of guys from each towing agency we used in various cities. I should probably mention that this wasn't exclusive to one city, but our region was about a quarter of the state of Ohio, so not only did I do a lot of driving, but I formed connections with a lot of places and people over a large area. Always nice to have those people to trade favors with! .

The least favorite part of the job was dealing with the car after we took it. Most of them were in terrible shape...some having been lived in for a while. Part of our job was to clean out the car and trunk. This meant itemizing all of the personal belongings, packing them up and shipping them back to the customer. All the garbage was thrown out and a detailed inspection of the car had to be made, noting the overall condition and any damage. Summer, of course, was the worst season for spending the day in a impound lot with your head stuck in a car! I literally saw everything imaginable from guns, rotting food, dead mice, used condoms, dirty laundry, drug paraphernalia, and dirty diapers!

The most interesting part of the job was the people! Yes, it could be dangerous and I did run into some trouble. If I felt it was going to be dangerous, I could call for police backup beforehand, which I did a few times. Only once did I actually get hurt, which was only a bruise the shape of a man's hand on my arm. One time someone pulled a knife on me, but fortunately he decided not to use it! LOL! I'm sure my guardian angel called in the reserves to follow me around! :)

. But the weirdest experience was this one.... I had been out to visit a woman and remember sitting in her kitchen explaining all the options available to bring her account up to date. She was odd, to say the least, but I didn't think too much about it. The next day she called my boss, saying that she wouldn't be paying or giving up the car! And in passing, she added that she had made a voodoo doll of me..complete with long brown hair and a red raincoat...which I had been wearing the day before! Needless to say, the company didn't want me to go out to her house again! LOL! I wonder what ever happened to that doll!?

And of course, don't get 'repossessed' confused with 'possessed', which I'm convinced was the trouble with my old van! Remember the wipers that would run when the key was out of the ignition? Oh yea..THAT is possessed! LOL!

all photos from googleimages.com