Car Repo Getting Increasingly Violent

What would you do if you hear noises outside at 2:30 in the morning and see three men trying to take your car away? 

I don’t know what I would do, but what Jim Tanks of Halsell, Alabama did ended up costing him his life:  He grabbed a gun, walked out the back door, and confronted the men.  The men were not thieves, but rather, repo men trying to take Mr. Tanks’ car away.  Shots were fired and Mr. Tanks died with a gunshot wound to the chest. 

The repo man, Kenneth Alvin Smith, now faces murder charges.  He says he fired in self defense.  Mr. Smith works for Ascencion Recovery in Birmingham, AL, where a repo man was shot dead and yet another was wounded in two separate repossession incidents just this year.

Most financially-strapped people start getting behind on their car payment.  I am no different.  In fact, a tow truck near my car is one of the top ten things a broke person like me is afraid of.  In nightmarish imaginings I have always thought repo men take your car in the middle of the day, when you are at work, for full embarrassing effect.  Never in my life did I imagine repo men skulking around at 2:30 in the morning to take away someone’s car!

Read more about this tragedy here.

Photo credit:  Associated Content in their article Starting an Automobile Repossession (Repo) Service by Steve Thompson.