Lousy holiday: Car repossessed, gifts gone
DAYTONA BEACH -- Anne Bright could feel the holiday spirit lift her mood as she headed out Tuesday afternoon in a borrowed car to buy Christmas presents for her 10-year-old daughter.
single mom had been taking as much overtime as she could get and, sometimes, worked double shifts between her two jobs as a certified nursing assistant, but the payoff would be worth it -- an extra check she wouldn't need for rent, groceries or other bills.
This one was for Saniya's Christmas.
Bright found the video games her daughter wanted at Walmart. At Toys-R-Us, she bought the big-ticket item: an electric scooter her daughter had talked about since last Christmas.
On the way home, Bright felt jollier than Santa Claus as she stopped at a mobile-phone store on Mason Avenue. She tucked the package with the video games beneath the front passenger seat before closing and locking the door.
She was gone only five minutes by her calculation, but the car was gone when she returned. Frantically, she called her brother to tell him the green Oldsmobile that belonged to his girlfriend had been stolen.
Maybe not, he told her.
Bright could feel the Christmas cheer draining out of her.
Not surprisingly, auto repossessions are up this year. Yet, the industry remains largely unregulated, and its laws are often misunderstood by those unfamiliar with the business.
A creditor has the right to take back a car as soon as you default on your loan, but it's usually not so easy. Federal law says workers can't "breach the peace" while repossessing items, which, in effect, means a good repo man will grab your car when you're not around to put up a fuss.
You might think the car is stolen, which is why the repo man is required to call police within two hours of the seizure.
The stuff that's in the car is still yours -- a creditor can't keep or sell any of it -- but the law doesn't go far in protecting consumers. The state attorney general's Web page advises that if a creditor can't account for valuable articles left in your car, "you may be entitled to compensation and you should consult with an attorney."
The system practically invites allegations of theft. Those in the business joke that if they had a nickel for every time they heard about a Rolex left in the glove compartment they could actually buy one of the watches for themselves.
"Allegations of missing property are the No. 1 complaint in the industry," said Patrick Altes, president of Falcon International, a repo company based in Daytona Beach. "We've been doing this since 1951, so we've got a lot to lose. We're very careful, yet allegations like this happen almost daily."
At Altes' company (which did not retake Bright's borrowed car), they take photos of the car as soon as it's secured and compile a detailed inventory of any material inside to help protect them against any complaints filed with the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services.
But in the absence of witnesses, there's no guarantee against charges of theft.
Bright got a quick education in this once she figured out that the car had been reclaimed by Daytona Auto Sales. She took a cab to the Mason Avenue lot in hopes of reclaiming the presents, but it had closed for the night.
After an overnight shift at one of the nursing homes where she works, Bright started working the phones. To get her possessions returned, she'd have to pay $45 and the car's owner would have to return her keys. Bright did this but was rewarded with a bag of garbage and a child seat -- no packages.
She called the police.
Daytona Beach Police filed an incident report, noting that Bright claimed the presents had been in the car but that the car lot owner said nothing of value was in the car. Police told Bright the repo man said he found the car with the windows down and doors unlocked.
"That's not true," Bright insisted later in an interview at her Daytona Beach home. "I made extra precautions. I even stuck the bag under the seat and made sure the doors were locked. It's a habit with me."
Angelo Noviello, the owner of Daytona Auto Sales, didn't want to be in this story, saying any dispute was the responsibility of the repo man he contracted with. He provided a disconnected phone number and a wrong number to contact the repo man, and did not respond to requests for a third phone number.
"We just hired somebody to get the car," he said. "Like I'd told the (car's owner), 'If you'd just made the payments, we wouldn't have this problem.'
"We hear this every time we repo a car," he added. "There's a thousand dollars under the seat. There were gold chains under the seat. They've all got stories."
If Bright's account is just a story, too, she risked criminal charges for filing what would be a false report. She also went to the trouble of returning to Walmart so she could obtain a copy of the receipt she said was stolen from the car along with the video games, worth $29.96 and $49.96. She has a gift receipt for the $219.99 electric scooter.
Bright was angry enough to meet with a lawyer Thursday, though she hasn't decided if she'll pursue a case -- which she fears could cost more than the lost goods.
"Because times are hard, it's not like I'm able to go out and buy stuff for (Saniya) on a regular basis," she said. "This is why I worked the overtime, why I worked the doubles (shifts) back-to-back. This was going to be my Christmas money."
Source: Lousy holiday: Car repossessed, gifts gone
single mom had been taking as much overtime as she could get and, sometimes, worked double shifts between her two jobs as a certified nursing assistant, but the payoff would be worth it -- an extra check she wouldn't need for rent, groceries or other bills.
This one was for Saniya's Christmas.
Bright found the video games her daughter wanted at Walmart. At Toys-R-Us, she bought the big-ticket item: an electric scooter her daughter had talked about since last Christmas.
On the way home, Bright felt jollier than Santa Claus as she stopped at a mobile-phone store on Mason Avenue. She tucked the package with the video games beneath the front passenger seat before closing and locking the door.
She was gone only five minutes by her calculation, but the car was gone when she returned. Frantically, she called her brother to tell him the green Oldsmobile that belonged to his girlfriend had been stolen.
Maybe not, he told her.
Bright could feel the Christmas cheer draining out of her.
Not surprisingly, auto repossessions are up this year. Yet, the industry remains largely unregulated, and its laws are often misunderstood by those unfamiliar with the business.
A creditor has the right to take back a car as soon as you default on your loan, but it's usually not so easy. Federal law says workers can't "breach the peace" while repossessing items, which, in effect, means a good repo man will grab your car when you're not around to put up a fuss.
You might think the car is stolen, which is why the repo man is required to call police within two hours of the seizure.
The stuff that's in the car is still yours -- a creditor can't keep or sell any of it -- but the law doesn't go far in protecting consumers. The state attorney general's Web page advises that if a creditor can't account for valuable articles left in your car, "you may be entitled to compensation and you should consult with an attorney."
The system practically invites allegations of theft. Those in the business joke that if they had a nickel for every time they heard about a Rolex left in the glove compartment they could actually buy one of the watches for themselves.
"Allegations of missing property are the No. 1 complaint in the industry," said Patrick Altes, president of Falcon International, a repo company based in Daytona Beach. "We've been doing this since 1951, so we've got a lot to lose. We're very careful, yet allegations like this happen almost daily."
At Altes' company (which did not retake Bright's borrowed car), they take photos of the car as soon as it's secured and compile a detailed inventory of any material inside to help protect them against any complaints filed with the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services.
But in the absence of witnesses, there's no guarantee against charges of theft.
Bright got a quick education in this once she figured out that the car had been reclaimed by Daytona Auto Sales. She took a cab to the Mason Avenue lot in hopes of reclaiming the presents, but it had closed for the night.
After an overnight shift at one of the nursing homes where she works, Bright started working the phones. To get her possessions returned, she'd have to pay $45 and the car's owner would have to return her keys. Bright did this but was rewarded with a bag of garbage and a child seat -- no packages.
She called the police.
Daytona Beach Police filed an incident report, noting that Bright claimed the presents had been in the car but that the car lot owner said nothing of value was in the car. Police told Bright the repo man said he found the car with the windows down and doors unlocked.
"That's not true," Bright insisted later in an interview at her Daytona Beach home. "I made extra precautions. I even stuck the bag under the seat and made sure the doors were locked. It's a habit with me."
Angelo Noviello, the owner of Daytona Auto Sales, didn't want to be in this story, saying any dispute was the responsibility of the repo man he contracted with. He provided a disconnected phone number and a wrong number to contact the repo man, and did not respond to requests for a third phone number.
"We just hired somebody to get the car," he said. "Like I'd told the (car's owner), 'If you'd just made the payments, we wouldn't have this problem.'
"We hear this every time we repo a car," he added. "There's a thousand dollars under the seat. There were gold chains under the seat. They've all got stories."
If Bright's account is just a story, too, she risked criminal charges for filing what would be a false report. She also went to the trouble of returning to Walmart so she could obtain a copy of the receipt she said was stolen from the car along with the video games, worth $29.96 and $49.96. She has a gift receipt for the $219.99 electric scooter.
Bright was angry enough to meet with a lawyer Thursday, though she hasn't decided if she'll pursue a case -- which she fears could cost more than the lost goods.
"Because times are hard, it's not like I'm able to go out and buy stuff for (Saniya) on a regular basis," she said. "This is why I worked the overtime, why I worked the doubles (shifts) back-to-back. This was going to be my Christmas money."
Source: Lousy holiday: Car repossessed, gifts gone
