'Repo' men make a living doing an unpopular job

An interesting array of personal items can be found in vehicles that have been repossessed. Here are some items found during a recent repossession by Camping Companies:

The memories, like the night itself, are slightly murky.

It was early in the morning on Thanksgiving. Or was it Christmas Eve? The truck in question was a Ford Ranger. Or was it a Chevy S-10?

But one recollection remains frighteningly vivid: that of the rifle shot that bore into the bed of a tow truck driven by Steve Spencer of Camping Companies, a prominent vehicle repossession business.

"We talked to the debtor and I could tell right away he'd been drinking and was agitated," Spencer, now co-manager of Camping Companies, says. "I talked to him and told him we had no choice but to leave with the vehicle. We had the truck ready to go, and then he ran inside."

To get a gun, as it turns out.

"I saw him get a rifle and load it, and as we were driving away he fired into the back of the truck," Spencer says in an ominous, monotone voice. "He shot just once and it's the only time I've ever been shot at. I've had people flash guns before, but only one has actually fired."

Spencer and Camping Companies co-manager Kevin Camping (whose father Walt started the business in Phoenix) have been in business since 1991. The two met on the golf course in Phoenix, and now run one of the most successful repossession companies in the Southwest, with offices in Las Vegas, Salt Lake City, Tucson, Flagstaff and Lake Havasu, Ariz., and Denver and Colorado Springs, Colo. The home office is in Phoenix.

Taking a sobering, serious approach to his work, Spencers prefers to be low key about the repossession business and is eager to debunk any myths about a "repo man's" life.

"It's somewhat dangerous, but not that violent or glamorous," Spencer, a former junior college football player and bartender, says. "Ninety-nine percent of the time it's fairly uneventful. You do have adrenaline issues and you are dealing with people in an antagonistic way because you're taking their property and they can become angry. But we address them as 'sir' or 'ma'am' and try to be as professional as possible."

Before hoisting their new Lexus and cutting a path into the night, that is.

"We have a job to do, and that is to serve our clients," Spencer says. "Service is making as quick and clean a recovery as possible. We prefer not to come into personal contact with debtors and to get the vehicle into our possession as efficiently as possible."

Before being promoted to co-manager, Spencer spent more than five years in the field. The process is fairly straightforward. A Camping Companies client -- which includes any financial institution that provides automobile loans -- will contact Spencer or Camping with a request to repossess a car from a defaulted loan.

The company is provided with a form listing the debtor's personal information -- the person's place of residence, place of business, address and phone number, as well as information about the vehicle to be recovered.

Spencer then goes to work, tracking down the whereabouts of the vehicle with a few well-placed phone calls. A nondescript tow truck is then dispatched, and the "repo" is in progress.

"A lot of what we do, people don't see," Camping says. "It's not just three minutes to get a car. It's a lot of phone calls and paperwork leading up to that."

And the vehicles recovered can run the full gamut from, as Spencer says, "a beat-up 12-year-old car to a Mercedes SL500."

For proof, Spencer opens a door to the Camping Companies storage and parking area. Amid the 200 or so Chevrolet pickups, Ford Escorts and even a Volkswagen bug (circa 1970) is an eggshell-white, 1997 Mercedes E320 with California plates.

"We picked that one up just last week," Spencer says, eyeing the luxury car with a slight smile. "Someone living beyond their means, trying to live the high life."

Spencer reels off an impressive list of exotic cars among the several thousand recoveries he executed while still in the field.

"I picked up Rolls-Royces, Mercedes, Corvettes, Jaguars, Porches, Lexus," Spencer says. "Real nice cars, tough cars to part with."

Camping Companies employees need only to be able to hoist a vehicle by its drive wheels -- a front-wheel drive car is lifted at the front and a rear-wheel drive vehicle from behind. All that prevents a car from being towed away is an activated emergency break, which is released by the repo man.

Accessing automobiles is never impossible. The familiar Slim Jim tool, which is slipped into the door through the window slit, is used about half the time. Automobile manufacturers also can pass along access codes as well as copies of keys. A car alarm or The Club anti-theft device will not prevent a car from being moved.

"Sometimes we'll just take a car while the alarm is wailing, or we'll cut the electrical line to the siren," Spencer says, "and we do have a nice Club collection."

Most repossessed cars are sold at auction. Others are recovered by debtors who have made a deal with their financial institution.

"Most are people who didn't intend for this to happen, good people who have had financial problems," Spencer says. "Others are real pieces of work who know that they don't have the means but try to own these vehicles anyway.

The recovery process also produces a vast array of personal items to be reclaimed by debtors. The Camping Companies office and storage areas are fairly bursting with large plastic bags containing personal items.

"We see anything and everything," Spencer says. "We've got sexual aids with the batteries included, and one guy was pretty adamant about a certain videotape we had in our possession."

Items to be reclaimed cost the debtor $10 per bag, as well as a storage fee.

"Sometimes I'll just slip the gloves on and put the stuff in the bag," Spencer says. "Food, tapes, whatever. Some people have strange lives and habits. I've recovered outfits worn by dancers, just thrown in the back."

For a true-to-life repo man, it's all part of the job.

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