A repo man's chase

Chuck Slate said there are two jokes that go around in his business as a repo man.

"We never get lost. Everyone's always telling us where to go," he said, "and next time, wave all of your fingers at me."

Slate, the owner of Midland-based C&S Wrecker and Recovery, knows he's reviled, and he relishes the animosity. People have cussed him, yelled at him, threatened him, pulled guns out on him and on one occasion even tried to deliberately crash into his wrecker in broad daylight, he said. On the other extreme, people have tried to beg, bribe and even proposition him.

Business however is pretty good.

"Due to circumstances in the economy ... you may buy a new car, walk in a week later and the boss fires you. What are you going to pay for, the car or the electricity?" he said.

The Ector County Sheriff's Office, which also dabbles in the repossession business, has taken a few more stereos, TVs, cars and other properties from people who have fallen behind on the payments.

Even though Sgt. Gary Duesler said their stats do not differentiate repossessions from, say, evictions, child support complaints or civil lawsuits, he and his fellow deputies served 4,905 civil papers in 2008, which he said was an increase from the year before.

Whether he's seizing air conditioners or TVs or automobiles, Duesler said he still finds the repossessing part of his job easier than what repo men like Slate do, since he's doing most of his work in the day.

"They've got a tough job, I would not do that full-time," he said. "They're not usually carrying a gun, they're not recognizable authority figures, and I don't regularly pick up vehicles at 4 a.m. ... We show up out there, and we're a clearly marked unit."

Alejandro Terrazas owned one of the vehicles Slate was hired to repossess during a recent Saturday afternoon drive through West Odessa. As Terrazas watched his ATV being taken away, he said he bought it seven months ago but was four months behind on the payments.

"I was working good, but when I got laid off everything else just went down," he said. He hoped to get the ATV back soon.

Slate said that particular job was one of the easier ones. He said often the sight of the wrecker in the person's driveway and his introduction usually disarms them.

"They don't know how to react most times," said Curtis Culver, Slate's brother-in-law, who was helping Slate with the towing.

Slate said he currently seizes about 20 cars, ATVs, trucks, boats and an occasional piece of construction equipment a week.

On a typical 15-hour shift - and he gets maybe three hours of sleep some workdays - Slate said he does most of his seizures at night. Then, he can use the element of surprise and the soon-to-be former property owner's sleepiness to his advantage so that they are more likely to just fork over the keys to the car and less likely to make a commotion. When he cannot find the mark at night, he uses the day to knock on doors and ask about their whereabouts.

Near downtown Odessa on a recent Saturday, on the way to one of the debtors, Culver noticed a Honda.

"That Honda that passed us, that was one for Love's (Auto Sales)," he told Slate. That car was next on the list.

Slate said they find their marks literally passing them by all the time. If it's safe, he'll turn around and chase them, though in the heavy traffic on Eighth Street that afternoon, he decided against it.

"It all comes down to a game. They run, we chase," Slate said.

As far as dealing with the owners, his rule of thumb is to "be polite until polite's not needed." Keep things peaceful if possible, but in the end, get that car and go home.

If people want to argue, he puts his foot down and tries to do his job. If the debtor gets really crazy, "the best thing you can do is get back in the truck and drive away."

"My goal is to go home every night," Slate said.

He said he does get a bit nervous when a creditor asks him to seize motorcycles, since they are "a way of life" for some of the owners, especially Harley-Davidson owners.

"They'd rather let you have the wife before you have the bike," he said.