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I posted this on the amcforum.net under same
thread, might be worth reading here on Bart's site also.
A few comments here. I can't recall the last
time someone stole a AMC anything, except in the early 80s my dad's 76 Pacer was
stolen by homeless people in front of their house in Corpus Christi, and never
recovered, not that the CCPD went looking for it either. Chances are the crooks
were interested in money, or valuables in the home and were casing it for future
whatever. If the police were called over this incident, and then the alleged
theives returned the next day according to neighbor, then the police are not
doing their job. Again, it appears to me that they are after something else
besides a old Rambler.
Why would the car owner "believe" these guys story
to begin with that "had stolen licence plates?" Didn't the car owner have a cell
phone with camera to take these people's photos? Knowing you have them on file
(or your neighbor, or anyone else in vicinity) would be a huge deterrent if they
wanted to steal anything from your property! Did the neighbor call 911? Breaking
and entering is a felony, and police have a under 5 minute response time for
that! So there is a lot here that don't simply add up. It is good that the
neighbor called police, but she should have not told these people she was and
shuold have called 911 silently. Once police arrive they have to show ID or
drivers license, and a check is run on the car plates! If car is stolen or
plates ficticious as mentioned in letter above, people are busted! Hell, they
would be busted in a whole variety of ways just judging by the initial letter
posted.
Go over to a search engine like http://www.google.com and punch in YOUR name.
Hell, punch in MY name. This is what shows up under my name:
Results 1 - 10 of about 1,350,000 for eddie stakes. (0.26 seconds) Kirkwood, with all due respect, that law don't mean
squat. A cop will tell you if someone wants something bad enough, they will
eventually find a way to get it.
I have done reprosession work here in Houston. It
is not a easy, nor glamourous job. But think about this for a moment. It does
not matter what your car is. Could be a SUV, Lexus, or many other cars well
worth more than a old AMC "anything". Banks are more than happy to furnish
everything they know about you to get their 'investment' back. So now I know
your your name, address, work, boss name, cat's name, when you are home, when
you are not, your social security number, all your credit records, I now know it
all because you missed a payment or two! (I know we are talking about a paid off
AMC here, but follow me on this from the repo man angle.)
So I legally stalk you until I get that vehicle
back and the law is on my side, I'm basically a bounty hunter. I have reached in
a car full of people at a drive thru McDonald's (holding a badge, snaring the
keys from the ignition); I have hooked up a vehicle in front of the owner's
business in full view of her clients; and also taken cars out of garages. It
takes me 12 seconds to get your car and I'm gone. The next few minutes are on
the hotline to Houston Police letting them know I have accomplished a legal
reposession.
Which brings me to this AMC in New Jersey. Your
car. Any car. Anywhere. You obviously have a license plate on it, which you must
drive to and from wherever on your state's highways and roads. If.....I see your
car at a cruise night, swap meet, auto show, and I think I might want to steal
it later, I have all the information I need to find you easily by your license
plate. Bonus if I even bothered to write down the VIN of the vehicle. So
basically for theives, your car/truck, any car or truck, is window shopping when
it is not in your garage and is on the street. This is something big city cops
will tell you, and have for years. Don't bring you Hemi Cuda out much? Who
cares, I saw it in Hot Rod 3 years ago. I saw and photographed your Rebel
Machine at the Albany meet you were at.
Ignition kill switch? Alarm? Club? Give me a break,
there is not one anti theft device out there foolproof. Especially to a repo
man, but even more so to a determined thief. Yes, I know, some have the house
surrounded by pit bulls, and are armed to the teeth with uzis. That is nice Mr.
The Game, all it takes is a nanosecond for the theif (gee, or repo man) to
strike. And you can't be at home 24 hours a day, 7 days a week now can you? And
dogs like those pigs ears you know, some of them laced with sleeping pills. Good
doggie, wake up in a few hours.
And yes, many of us carry guns in Texas legally.
And yes, we are the Death Penalty Capital of the US in Harris County here. We
don't like crime and well, the prosecutors, and juries are tough on criminals to
commit it.
http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/Prison_System/Houston_deathpenalty.html It STILL don't deter people.
http://www.tavti.org/reg2news.html Look at the numbers, then look at the over 200,000 cars here: http://www.humaneventsonline.com/article.php?id=3088 So hopefully you will realize that these people,
whoever they are, were not after a old AMC. Furthermore, if they were serious,
it would already be gone. The owner might have visited Cecil County meet,
Albany, Nationals in CT in 2000; ect, and they have photos of
your car. I have photos of over 3000 cars, and guess what, 99% of them have the license plate attached to them at the dragstrip, or car show, or auction. Furthermore, I have spent the last 20 years looking
at AMCs at national and regional meets, not only taking photos, but also writing
down the VINs, and in many cases, the door tag info. Some people have walked up
to me asking what I was doing, I introduce myself, shake hands and not ONE in
over 20 years.....has said 'please don't document my car, or don't write down my
numbers'. I'm sure they know I ain't even remotely interested in stealing their
car, just documenting survivors! OTHERS RESULTS MAY VARY.
With the advent of internet, there is more
information out there than many people realize. So you get a name and look it
up, or other info, then go to a website like switchboard.com (this is what bail
bondsmen do) then go to mapquest.com and you have red carpet to one's
door.
I didn't like being a repo man even though the
money was great. I simply like dealing with people on a friendly basis, and this
is why I quit and stayed in the Houston bar/restaurant business after a 1/4
century. But the ways and means mentioned above is not intended to scare you.
Maybe it should. Repo men and bounty hunters commonly 'get around' the laws. I
did. Repeatedly. And it was some damned good money.
What bothers me most is while something obviously
happened, the car owner 'believed' these characters who had a ficticiuos license
plate/and or car stolen. The ficticious license plate is a crime punishable by
up to 2 years and $4000 fine in Texas; and a stolen car is felony, so yougo to
pen. But regardless of that, these people could have told the car owner they got
the info from John Paul II instead off website somewhere.
I hope in no way anyone is offended by what I said
above. It is just my own experience in one year of reposessing people's property
that I learned all this. And as mentioned, I didn't like that job and quit.
However, everyone is different, and again, everyone needs to please keep
in mind some of these unscruplous assholes out there in the world are only
waiting for a chance to rip someone off, waiting for that little window. You
simply always must have your guard up sadly, whether driving in traffic, anti
virus protection on computer, whatever!
I hope that this incident won't discourage anyone
from showing any of your vehicles, or enjoying them in the future however
either. Whether lessons learned from 9/11 or daily, the bad guys should not ever
win.
Eddie Stakes' Planet Houston AMX
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