Mike
Radford,#2Consumer Suggestion
Sat, July 17, 2004
You are right on the law. Repo men are not allowed to use force. It is unconscionable that any police officer would not know that. The repo man is allowed only to sneak up and take the car. If anyone objects, he has to leave, maybe to come back later and try again. If the police were called, and knew what they were doing, they would tell the repo man to leave. That's why repo men don't get the police first, they would be on the customer's side. (The exception is if the finance company got a court order for "replevin", then the police could use force to help the company repo the car. The police would always be called first in this case, since the repo man is still not allowed to assault the customer directly. But this is very rare, since the company would have to have filed a lawsuit and gotten a judgement first.) If your brother's lawyer is any good, he will get the car back with no more payments ever, and some cash out of this too. He needs to round up all the witnesses and go to the local police again, and INSIST that an assault report be taken. Any higher-up in the police department should realize that the first officer made a BIG MISTAKE and the department may be in trouble for it.
S.n.
Bucyrus,#3Consumer Suggestion
Fri, July 16, 2004
I don't know about your neck of the woods, but in Kansas that is known as assault and battery. Get the report from the paramedic. Demand a report from the police department, then contact the District Attorney and advise that your brother wishes to press charges. Repo or not, assaulting your brother is against the law. If the repo person believed they were being interefered with, they should have contacted the police and had them on site. On the flip side, I would get my brother in to see his regular doctor ASAP just to make sure there are no further injuries.