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Some background on the vehicle, we have had issues with this vehicle being left in our parking lot a number of times over the last two years. The vehicle has fictitious plates, an old Texas LP sticker scotch taped to the windshield, no Inspection, and so on. The first time it showed up we assumed it was stolen called the PD, they checked it out and informed us the plates were fictitious (we knew this because of the old "truck" plates on a sedan) however when they ran the vin it was not 99 anywhere and had a valid NM registration. In regards to abandoned vehicles while state law says 48 hours our policy is 72 hours. We actually had a wrecker on the way when the vehicle was picked up by the owner the first time. Not too much later it shows up in the same location, same day of the week, and with the same plates. The PD was getting frustrated because it was not on public property so they couldn't tow it for being abandoned, they never could catch it on the road, and our policy hamstrung us from having it towed. Eventually we got the vehicle being left on video, and watched as the driver gets out, takes off the plates on the vehicle and put the Texas plates on it! It was never on the road with fictitious plates.

Yesterday the vehicle was parked in the parking lot next to us and a wrecker shows up and snags it. The wrecker is a little odd though. He had NM plates, almost no markings, and the driver was OCing an AK. After the humorous thought that OCT may have found a new business venture that would actually make them less popular I approached the operator and asked him what was going on. Turns out it's a repo, it had a GPS installed but it hasn't worked since a few months after the loan was started, the GPS recently started working again just before a mechanics lien appeared and then disappeared on the title. Turns out the GPS draws power from the OBD II port, which nearly always shares a fuse with the cigarette lighter, and often gets blown. In order for a shop to use a scan tool they have to replace the fuse if it's blown. This guy had not made payments in over 2 years on the vehicle and thus we now have the right conditions for a repo of a vehicle that has not been locatable. Was the wrecker legal to operate in Texas? I doubt it, but I wasn't going to complain because he was solving a recurring problem for me and my employer.

Let 'em have it.

Guys like that crack me up.
If he spent as much time and energy working as he did hiding the vehicle, he could have made enough money to pay off his loan.

Nothing Illegal about using a wrecker to recover a vehicle for unpaid loan
The gun is different issue

92f-fan wrote:Nothing Illegal about using a wrecker to recover a vehicle for unpaid loan
The gun is different issue

Why can't you OC or CC a long gun for a repo?

The wrecker was out of state, minimal DOT markings, and i am uncertain if was in compliance with TDLR requirements being from out of state.

My mother has had to repo vehicles out of state, and she always just uses someone that is in that state. Saves problems in the long run.

G.A. Heath wrote: .... and our policy hamstrung us from having it towed...

This baffles me. Your policy was a day longer than the law, so why didn't you (or your company) just amend your policy to either a) be the same as the law, or b) be the same as the law whenever you have a repeat offender?

ELB wrote:

G.A. Heath wrote: .... and our policy hamstrung us from having it towed...

This baffles me. Your policy was a day longer than the law, so why didn't you (or your company) just amend your policy to either a) be the same as the law, or b) be the same as the law whenever you have a repeat offender?

it's not my policy to set or make, I just follow it. I figure that it's probably there to ensure that no one jumps the gun on the required 48 hours. We have considered other options, which is why I have a passing idea of TDLR and its impact on towing.

G.A., I'm curious as to where he went each time he parked the car. Did he work in the area, or do you think he was just moving the car around every three days to avoid repo?

I suspect he work(s/ed) in the oil field, and that he was part of a car pool as there was almost always another vehicle parked with his (one of two others) that would appear and disappear at the same time as his. Some times the other two would appear together and his wouldn't. Since the oilfield fell off his car or one of the others would appear, but lately we haven't seen two at a time.

G.A. Heath wrote:The wrecker was out of state, minimal DOT markings, and i am uncertain if was in compliance with TDLR requirements being from out of state.

In Texas you don't have to have any DOT signage on a tow truck if it is only used for your own business...ie: a car dealer just using it for his own business, and not for public hire. Since the wrecker came from New Mexico and that is where it was sold and registered, I suspect that was the case. Other wise the cost to pay a commercial wrecker service to drive a long distance to pick it up would be prohibitive. The other alternative for a dealer is to locate the vehicle somewhere and then call a "Recovery Agent" to go pick it up with his commercially licensed tow truck and haul it a short distance to his storage lot then go pick it up with a car hauling trailer himself or pay an individual or employee to do so.

I should have been more clear, the driver said they do a lot of repos for that buy here pay here dealer. The state line is less than 30 miles away so when it came back to our parking lot it was most likely no longer cost prohibitive.

G.A. Heath wrote:I should have been more clear, the driver said they do a lot of repos for that buy here pay here dealer. The state line is less than 30 miles away so when it came back to our parking lot it was most likely no longer cost prohibitive.

That makes sense...I would imagine he charges the dealer a flat fee per vehicle plus mileage. Probably at a much lower rate than the "market rate" in that particular area, because he knows there won't be any hassle getting paid and no necessity to fill out several pages of legal notifications on his end, since the dealer has to do all the paperwork beforehand.