Riding With The 'Repo Man'
Wisconsin State Journal
Friday, September 8, 2006
Remember The 1984 Cult Film? He's The Real Thing
Brian Newlun knocked on a North Side woman's door about 6:30 a.m. Wednesday after loading her Chrysler Town & Country van on the back of his flatbed truck. He had found the car parked on the street.
"Sorry to wake you up this morning," he said, then offered to help remove her personal belongings from the van. While she puttered in the glove compartment, he picked up armloads of items from the back seats and deposited them near her front door.
He showed her the papers that allowed him to repossess the van and listened sympathetically as she complained that the transmission didn't work and that she'd never been notified about a possible repossession, although records showed she hadn't made a payment in a year. Newlun had been looking for her since April and finally tracked her to the address through a utility bill. She gave him the keys, thanked him for helping her unload her items and he drove away.
Newlun, 43, said his life bears little resemblance to the 1984 cult movie "Repo Man." Most of the time, there's little drama. He likes to pick up vehicles early in the morning when people are home and when they're sleepier and less likely to have been drinking. He also loads vehicles first before contacting owners because he said there are fewer arguments that way.
"You've got to be nice," he said.
The legal aspect of repossessing cars in Wisconsin became a little easier in April due to a law change in which lenders no longer have to file replevin, or repossession, cases in court before taking a vehicle back. The old law required lenders to go to court for all vehicles worth less than $25,000.
"A creditor can repossess with a notice to the customer that they're in default," said Madison attorney Valerie Bailey-Rihn. "We (attorneys) lose business, but I think it's a good step for both the consumers and the lenders. It cuts costs, including those passed on to the consumer."
Since the change, the number of replevin cases filed in Dane County Circuit Court didn't go down significantly until August and Newlun said he thinks it may take a while before the change in the law is incorporated into lenders' paperwork.
Newlun's company, CRI, is one of several large repossession companies in Wisconsin. The largest is Badgerland Auto Recovery of Greendale, outside Milwaukee. Smaller companies statewide include Wisconsin Auto Repossession of Madison.
Newlun said he's heard a lot of stories from vehicle owners during more than a decade of repossessing vehicles. There are four reasons that people run into trouble, he said: divorce, medical problems, a catastrophic change such as a job loss or what he calls stupidity, a category into which he lumps drug use, problem gambling and alcoholism.
"Most people are decent," he said. "But whatever's happened in their life has made a difference."
He said most people don't fight repossession and nearly half of the cases are voluntary in which the owner calls the lender in response to a notice and agrees to give up the vehicle.
Some owners are difficult to find, and there are, of course, some problem cases. Newlun said he was once threatened with a shotgun near Richland Center. Last week, he said, a Stoughton man jumped in the car and tried to drive away even though the vehicle was hooked to a tow bar. The stunt caused major damage to the car. When problems occur, Newlun said he immediately calls the police. And sometimes, he said, repossession cases are heart-rending. He recently had to pick up a handicapped-equipped van owned by a paraplegic man who owed $45,000. Several years ago, he picked up a car owned by a young terminal cancer patient in Rhinelander.
Newlun earns $100 to $300 for each car he repossesses. He takes them to a lot where they're picked up and trucked to auctions in Milwaukee, Chicago or St. Louis. His Cottage Grove company has four employees, including his wife, Barb, who runs the office. He subcontracts with other drivers to cover southern Wisconsin.
Newlun and his wife are both Madison-area natives. After working in collections and running a detective agency in Bullhead, Ariz., he returned to Madison in 1992 and worked as a process server. Since many of the papers he served were for repossessions, he also began picking up cars.
CRI retrieves about 300 to 400 cars a month and brings in about $500,000 a year. Out of that, Newlun said, he pays about $65,000 for insurance and $3,000 to $8,000 a month in diesel fuel for his two trucks, which each can haul two cars at a time -- one on the flatbed and another towed behind.
On his second stop Wednesday, Newlun discovered a red Dodge Durango behind a Park Street apartment building. The parking lot was tight and he was forced to park his truck at an angle, slowly working the Durango back and forth up his truck's ramp. He spotted a woman through the window of an apartment and motioned to the Durango, asking if it was hers. She nodded and he motioned for her to come outside. Minutes later, the woman appeared, but she spoke little English.
She told Newlun she didn't want to take any personal items from the Durango and handed him the keys.
