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.

I Have 3 Months Mortgage Payment Due NOW

Children are Getting Abandoned in Nebraska

Since the Nebraska Safe Haven Law went into effect this July 2008, 17 children have been given up at various Nebraska hospitals.  The Safe Haven law was intended to protect unwanted newborn children, but no age limit is specified in the Nebraska Law.   Recently, the following were abandoned at Creighton University Medical Center:

• Nine children aged 1 through 17 who were abandoned by the father after the mother died last year and he lost his job this year. He allowed his 18-year old daughter to stay at home.  His in-laws lamented that he should have approached them first and they would have been happy to help.  They are now fighting to gain custody of the children.
• A 14-year old girl from Iowa who was driven to and abandoned in Nebraska by her grandparents in to “teach her a lesson”.  The grandparents later changed their mind and got her back.

Read the entire text of the Nebraska Safe Haven Law  here.

Experts now say there is great potential for this law to be abused, and with how badly the economy is doing nowadays, they fear that many more children could be abandoned.

Image from Stephen & Karen Conn’s Nebraska Travel Tips.

Car Loan Rep Stunned I Answered The Phone

And so it starts … answering the telephone and facing up to these debt collectors.  It was actually pretty hilarious, considering the situation.

As I had mentioned before, there was an order to garnish my wages, and my employer complied with the order and decided to garnish an entire paycheck.  Since we are living paycheck to paycheck as it is, that really put us in a bind.  I couldn’t pay any bills and had to be super creative in feeding my family of four for two weeks.  The family didn’t starve, but the bills still need to be paid.

Since that garnishment I have been a month behind on my car loan payment.  Since this wasn’t the first time in my history with them that I had been late in paying, my account is probably on their Watch List.  Their rep would call every day  at random times.  After I decided to grow a backbone, I answered their call yesterday.  After I said “Hello” there was stunned silence for a few seconds, then a tentative “Lily?  Is this Lily?”  I actually grinned.

She questioned me about when I was going to be able to pay, and I calmly told her that I might be a month behind in payment for a couple of months more due to unforeseen circumstances.  She explained that if I were ever two months late, a motion to repossess the car will be filed.  Great.  Another one of those Top Ten Things A Broke Person is Afraid Of coming to haunt me — a tow truck near my car.  I assured her that I will do my best not to get things to that point.

After we hung up, I actually laughed out loud — from the relief that the call was over, from my amusement of the rep’s stunned silence when I answered the phone, and from the adrenaline rush of just being brave and facing something I had totally dreaded.  This would be totally incomprehensible to someone who has never been hounded by debt collectors, but for those that have, I’m sure they can identify with the feeling of empowerment that I felt.

I will continue to keep answering the phone and keep trying to make my circumstances better to reach the goal of being debt-free.  The next backbone I need to grow is finding the courage to read collecition mail.

Image from FreeDigitalPhotos.Net.

October Surprise: Time to Grow a Backbone

In The Top Ten Things a Broke Person is Afraid Of, #1 was “The Telephone”, for good reason:  I am speaking from experience.  We have long gotten rid of our land line, so collectors call my cell phone.  A blessing and a curse:  Since I have my cell phone with me, collection calls follow me wherever I go.  But since it is a cell phone, I can customize ring tones for phone numbers, and you betcha, I customized all the collectors’ phone numbers with a “Silent” ring.    Works wonderfully!

Still, they leave voice mail, and listening to that is still a stressor — a reminder that I am broke.  It is also a reminder that I am being cowardly.  This song called “Fill the World With Love” has been playing over and over in my head:  “And the question God shall ask only I can answer:  Was I brave and strong and true?”.  I decided to take the hint:  it was time to grow a backbone, be brave,  and stop hiding.

I am going to start answering the phone, deal with the mess I am in, and put a plan together with the ultimate goal of being debt-free.

Get Naked For Money

Would you?

In one of the blogs to which I subscribe, the author talked about a friend who “had a modest job yet always has the latest gadgets”.  Intrigued, the author asked the friend how she was paying for all that stuff.  The friend confessed to the author that she’s been selling naked pictures of herself on the Internet.

The post was astounding to me for several reasons:

1. 1. The blog was a money-saving blog and I was not expecting the authors to address ”less mainstream” ideas.
2. 2. The author had the nerve to ask her friend how she pays for stuff.  What would Miss Manners say?
3. 3. The author described the friend as “pretty but a bit pudgy”. Wow.
4. 4. A woman would want indecent pictures of herself all over the Internet.  What if a friend or family member saw it?

The blog post went on to say that there are adults-only auction sites where a girl can try to sell not only Playboy centerfold-type … umm … “spreads”, but also their high-heels, outfits and even underwear.  If it hasn’t been washed, would it fetch a higher price?  Hmmm.

That author’s friend claimed that her annual income from this online venture is around $6,000.  Not a bad haul. I sure could use an extra $6,000 a year, couldn’t you?  However, though not a prude, I don’t think I can do something like this.

How about you? Have you or someone you personally know got naked for money?

To read the blog post that inspired this, click here. The naked woman in the photo isn’t me. Some random woman can now claim that I bought her naked photo from here, which is NOT an adult-only site.

This article was originally posted at Single Scoop, where I am a guest blogger.

90-Year Old Attempts Suicide Over Foreclosure

Addie Polk, a 90-year old Ohio woman, attempted to kill herself with a gun as local deputies were arriving to evict her from her home.  Bloggers are calling her “the face of the crisis“, embodying not just financial hardship but also lack of financial guidance.

Ms. Polk has lived in her home for around 38 years, according to neighbors.  The mortgage was paid off in 1982.  She had since re-mortgaged her home three times since 1997 to ease financial burdens.  What would probably helped her is a reverse mortgage to allow her access to her home equity without having to make monthly payments.  Those lenders that have given her a mortgage since 1997 should have explored other options for Ms. Polk to consider based on her age.  Her last mortgage was with Countrywide in 2004, the mortgage company that had become infamous in recent times for its mortgage practices.

The people of Akron, Ohio have rallied behind Ms. Polk, including the OH Congressman Dennis Kucinich.  A Fannie Mae spokesperson has also said that Ms. Polk’s mortgage has been forgiven.  Ms. Polk is in critical condition at the Akron General Medical Center.

Fatal Shooting Over Fast Food Fight

The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports that Decora Jenkins was shot dead by a friend over a fast food dispute. She was 18. Ms. Jenkins, her 20-year old boyfriend, and a 28-year old female friend had just gotten some food from Rally’s. The female friend and the boyfriend argued and wrestled over the food, which resulted in the female friend grabbing a gun and firing at the boyfriend. She missed and hit Decora Jenkins instead.

A neighbor, who was with the three hours earlier at a block party commented, “It is very heartbreaking. All this came about over a hamburger. It’s a terrible situation.”

Two Rally’s hamburger wrappers were found in front of the home, attacked by a swarm of ants.

read more | digg story

They Took It All Away

My very first post here was about wage garnishment — the garnishment of my wages, that is.

I was told by my manager, “Of course, we’re not going to take it all at once!” And of course they did. I opened my paystub and the take home pay was $0. Budget that for bills, groceries, and even gas money. How could anyone have any rights to take one’s entire pay away???

The kids were about to start school and we needed to get school supplies, shoes and clothes for them. The car payment was due. So was the mortgage.

We made it through that bleak two-week period, but barely. I explained the circumstances to the kids (teens, really) and they were not happy but they understood. School supply shopping was transformed to “Mom, can I get this? It’s really cool!” to a bargain-hunting exercise. Personally, I think it did them good. The car and the house aren’t paid yet, however. It is too bad I am going to be paying late fees for those.

Woolite is a Struggling Career Woman’s Friend

As shallow as it may sound, your office clothes can influence others’ opinion of you.  This is especially true if you are angling for a management position.  The common advice from career gurus is that you must dress for the position you are aiming for.  Wearing faded, frayed and misshapen clothes to the office is not going to help your manager visualize you in a leadership position. » read more