@db4690 …I wasn’t suggesting OP follow my own plan. Like you say, it wasn’t her car. But I do think Tom’s anti-tow plan has merit.
@GeorgeSanJose
I’ll consider Tom’s anti-tow plan if I happen to be present when a tow truck driver wants to “unjustly” tow my car
Considering I pay cash for all my cars, it won’t be a repo
But I suppose I could get towed for a parking violation . . .
Bing, check your tax map. If your driveway is public property, you should not be paying real estate taxes on it. You should file for abatement.
Yes, almost getting towed for a parking violation is what happened to Tom. His smart thinking prevailed!
@“MG McAnick” – "These guys [repo tow drivers] know how to find you . … " I have always said that if our government really wanted to find Bin laden, they would have enlisted the help of any college or university alumni office. These alumni associations can track down anyone. I think I can now add repo tow truck drivers to the list.
@Triedaq … do you see this in your area too? Here there are tow trucks all the time driving around in the shopping mall parking lots, slowly up one aisle and down the other, covering all the aisles. Especially when the lots are full, like at 6 pm. It seems like they are looking for something, but the driver isn’t looking at the cars as he drives slowly by so much but at something inside the truck cab. I presume it is some kind of license plate scanner, matching up to a list of license plate numbers of cars needing to be repo’d.
I know some repo guys (a few personally) and they can be a mixed bag. The ones I know are intelligent and professional. Some of them that I know OF are basically uneducated hicks with a tow rig. The latter may be what you encountered.
It could be that guy snatched the car elsewhere and bugged out in a hurry. He then hit your street up as a dark quiet place to do a better job of anchoring the car on the tow rig without the pressure of the owner of the towed car appearing suddenly.
No matter, the guy had no business using your driveway and certainly no business running his mouth off.
My guess is that if you were a 6’4" 275 pound man his alligator mouth would be greatly subdued.
@ok4450 That’s a possibility I hadn’t thought of. There are three apartment complexes just a quarter mile away and ducking into this subdivision is the closest place to get off the major artery street where he could stop. That would explain why the car was so oddly positioned half across the entrance to a neighbor’s drive. I know for certain the car wasn’t anywhere in view of my house earlier in the evening. But it appeared like he had snaked it out from between two other strange cars curbside across the street. I just assumed the neighbors had some holiday guests. Obviously I will most likely never know just what occurred prior to my waking, looking out, and seeing the final moments of whatever the full situation was.
The funniest repo I ever saw way on TMZ. Some rapper of minor fame was in a club and repo guys came and repossessed his Bentley. He was standing outside the club in his rapper cloths with his (probably plated) gold chains hanging all over him arguing with the repo guys, saying “I MADE the payment”. It was hysterical.
I drove heavy truck, tractor trailer and school bus and I would never use someones driveway to turn around unless it was a gravel drive and hard enough to not sink into.
I think @ok4450 nailed it. The guy probably snatched the car elsewhere and was hiding in order to make sure it was secure on his wrecker. Some of their equipment can pull a car out of a parallel parking space, but it’s rather precariously balanced at that point. Stopping out of sight of the deadbeat is the first order of business.
My wife got on a kick for a short time and was watching one of those TV car repo shows. She was actually buying into that bunk a little bit and I told her no way on Earth is the repo business like that. The repo companies would be sued into oblivion.
Most of the time the person surrenders the car willingly or if taken by the repo guy it’s done as quickly and in as non-confrontational a manner as possible.
A mechanic I used to work with did some repo work for a dealer we worked for and he would do it at 2 o’clock in the morning. He would snag the car haphazardly and take off. When he would get a mile away he would stop (assuming no one was chasing him…) and hook it up properly with chains, lighting, and so on.
He also carried a .32 pistol in the waistband; just in case someone was really offended about having their car hauled away on the hook. The sidearm was never needed. On TV it would be another Gunfight at the O.K. Corral… 
Then I bet the screeching that woke me was the car being dragged down the street and it just happened to be in front of my house and the neighbor across the street where he stopped. My house backs to a wide common ground that falls steeply to a busy road below. I am so used to traffic sounds and the occasional accident out back that I spent a good full minute looking out back to no avail before looking out front. If he was dragging the car from one of the apartment complexes down the road out back then ducked into my subdivision it would explain the sound pattern. The more I think about it the more likely it seems. Aside from everything else, it did look bizarrely comical to see such a huge tow truck hauling such a tiny sub-compact. (Yaris, Spark, Fiesta, Fiat ???)
Yeah, that was clearly unacceptable.
Where I Live The Local Law Enforcement Agencies Will Cooperate With The Repo Folks, Providing Some Observation And Back-Up If Needed.
It seems that if the repo guy at Marnet’s had law watching, it could have gone a little smoother and benefitted Marnet.
CSA