Today, I came across an article in the Ozarks local news that
had a story based on what the journalist who wrote it heard from
the two major people involved, a mother and a recovery agent.
The reporter gives quotes that seemed to be diametrically
opposed to each other.
It seems that the mother of a three year child, who is out of
work and behind on her car payments, claims that the recovery
agent made her child cry when he repossessed her car that had
her unattended child (that she left in the car) asleep under a
blanket in the back seat. The mother admits to the journalist
that she did do this then going inside her boyfriend's
residence.
I cannot help but wonder if this mother has been under a rock
and missed all the recent local news coverage concerning the sex
offender's lists for Greene County. I checked before beginning
this article and there are 506 people listed in Greene County on
the sex offenders list. Of these 506, 4 are within a few blocks
of this mother's boyfriend's house, 1 apparently is on the same
street, South Kings Hwy. in Springfield. Sex offenders are not
the only people who prey on children, but they are the ones who
have been heavily covered in the Greene County media recently.
Clearly it must have been very important to her to make this
stop. Sometimes as parents we have to stop and ask ourselves
what is of utmost importance. For those who have children, which
would you leave in the car unobserved, your purse or your child.
What this reporter did not know or find out is how much training
and experience some recovery agents go through to ensure the
professionalism of themselves and their agency. The particular
agent involved is certified through a program called Certified
Asset Recovery Specialist or C.A.R.S. Joe Taylor of Matrix
Education Systems who is a very well respected as founded this
program and an expert witness in repossession related
litigation. This certification-training course is rigorous and
multi-faceted. It is dedicated to insuring physical safety for
everyone involved as being the paramount goal. The recovery is
secondary. The agent is taught how to recognize things that any
"tow-truck driver" would not even think to check. The agent
never wants to put anyone in harms way, the asset is never worth
any physical injury to anyone. It is the responsibility of
lenders to hire qualified repossession agencies. That is a
challenge that repossession companies have stressed to smaller
lenders for many years. Lenders are advised to hire only
recovery agencies which are insured and certified anything less
places your financial interests at risk. Clearly there are many
repossession agencies operating on a daily basis who are not
properly insured or certified, Midwest Adjusters, Inc. does not
appear to be one of those companies.
The recovery agent states that he looked in the windows for a
car seat and saw none. He states that the keys were left in the
ignition. A spokesman for the local police department has said
that the police don't believe there was any wrongdoing on the
recovery agency's part.
The mother states she took the keys inside with her yet she
admits that she left her child unattended and asleep. Society
cannot police moral but clearly someone needs to.
About the author:
In addition to owning one of only a few female owned repo
companies http://www.nsrecovery.com, Renee is also a licensed
Private Investigator in South Carolina and the owner of
http://www.procra.com which is an acronym for Professional
Collateral Recovery Agents. Procra is a repossession community
housing over 700 members. Procra has an online repo agent
directory for lenders to use when searching for a repo agent
