One of the more creative and daring aspects our job is repossession. When most people think of repossession they think of cars and trucks. Well there is a whole different world out there when one gets down to it. There are many different items the can be repossessed, here in North Idaho the list includes, logging equipment, mining equipment, horse trailers, snowmobiles, boats, four wheelers, lawn mowers, professional tools, even landscaping has been repossessed at one point or another.

It seems that some people just have not figured out how to live within their means. Sometimes one falls on hard luck and the payments just cannot be made. Well, the best way to do things is to just own up to it and make things right with whomever you have the loan out with. One would be surprised at the grace given by creditors if there is genuine ownership of the problem and a willingness in place to get right again. Many times people just cannot bring themselves to do this. So the game starts…. there is no way someone is going to take my stuff vs. the repo men who have a job to do and we will do it until completed and the client has their property back.

One particular tough customer was a fellow out of Nordman. Nordman is a small touristy place off Priest Lake that quintuples in population during the summer months. Most locals are tough do it yourselfers who survive year around on the meager off-season economic conditions. Which leads us to this month’s story about a prized tractor.

To my tractor with love

Our client had sold a $14,000 tractor to one such individual. There was a down payment made and no payment thereafter made. After the first month goes by, the purchaser starts sending threatening letters about being ripped off on the sale. To go along with that it seemed the purchaser was pursuing a law degree on line in his abundance of off season time. He happened upon some slick legal forms during his online activities and must have decided to put those forms to good use. Before long, our client along with the Idaho Attorney General, Idaho State Police, the local Sheriff was receiving a daily barrage of liens, wits, accusations, threats, complaints and a whole host of other legal rockets. Of course, they were totally baseless. Most likely taken off one of the same sites that proclaim you can never, ever, ever pay taxes again and it’s legal (at least until caught). It was this barrage that convinced our client he was not going to see another dime of the $12000 owed.

We got the call on a sunny afternoon in May. Briefed, and schooled up on how to operate that particular kind of tractor my partner and I took a little road trip up north. We took a truck and heavy duty trailer along with a chase car. After notifying the local authorities as to our activities we set about locating this prized tractor and then had to figure out a plan on how bring it home to its rightful owner.

What we had was a mobile home with a wooden roof structure over the top of it with an add-on bonus room sticking out the front side. To the back of that was a foundation for a home that obviously had been there for years with some feeble framing prep done to it. Behind that stood a full size 70’s school bus with most of the windows still left in it. Bingo, right next to the bus was our prize a brand new tractor complete with scoop and post hole digger. It was boxed in on three sides by the bus, another vehicle and some large trees. Closer inspection revealed a heavy ½ inch chain was wrapped around the back axle of that darn bus and through the wheels of the tractor, hooking it all up was the mother of all locks. The kind of lock the forest service would die for with their road gating program.

We basically were going to start the darn thing, bring it out on a road to the rear of the property and load it on a trailer a mile or so down the road and be off. I can’t tell you how we dealt with the chain but once that was off, we were off to the races. My brave boss on the tractor and myself nearby in the chase car. The only way out was through the garden and to the back road. A row of flattened onions and tomatoes later and he was out onto the back road. Rounding the corner he quickly saw the neighbor with the road blocked while cutting brush, so it was cross country time back to the county road. Darn, that little tractor could fly.

Here we were barreling down the main road, the tractor red lined and me in the trusty chase car escorting behind. We made for the lot where the trailer was and drove it right on. My partner jumped off, jumped in his truck and we were down the road to a pre-planned tie off spot. Once there we secured the tractor to the trailer and were down the road in fifteen minutes.

In case you were wondering, no our lawyer in training was not home and that’s how we planned it. An hour did not pass by before our barrister was on the phone to us (we gave the local Sheriff our number for him to call if he reported it stolen). The torrent of legal threats began. According to the legal scholar we were going to be sued, going to jail, going to the gallows and then just straight to that fiery lake. What he seemed the most upset about was the felony destruction of his tomato crop. Did I mention he was going to bring us up on RICO charges also.

In the end, our client received his tractor back, and even offered the esquire his down payment less our charges back. To that he just received another blast of legal papers, and threats so not even that happened. To make a long story short, its best not to play the repo game, repo men have a job to do and they will do it. One cannot be on guard all the time.

Phillip Thompson is a Vice President and Sr. Investigator for Confidential Investigations. Mr. Thompson has a business degree from Central Washington University and has been involved in investigative work and fraud detection for 8 years. He joined Confidential Investigations in 2002. He can be contacted at 208-762-5767 or email phil@idahoprivateeye.com.