Time for my repo story:
Back in 1990 I'd been driving junk for way too long. I had a good job and wanted a reliable car (I had 2, the newest 7 years old). So I found myself a brand new and nearly unobtainable 454SS chevy PU. Nice ride. I'd only had it for maybe 6 months. I worked a good day and drove home. The house up on the hill had a concrete slab I'd poured to park on, right in the back yard. I turned the truck around, parked it and went inside to take off my dress clothes. I heard a noise outback and looked. There was some idiot with one of those homemade wreckers (a frame in the bed) trying to hook up to my new truck!
I went from mellow to beyond mad. So I grabbed my 12ga double and ran/jumped down the stairs. I yelled at my son to call 911, they're trying to steal my truck. We had a verbal altercation (to put it mildly), with me offering to separate the halves of his body if he even tried to take my truck. He was the one making some pretty ugly threats.
Son came outside with the cordless phone with the 911 operator asking what's going on. He told her "dad has a double barrel and the guy is about to get shot". For whatever reason, that tends to get the locals in a hurry.
The repo man/thief was becoming even more upset and started to walk toward me. I told him he was close to suicide. Better still, I could hear the sirens coming. He walked back to the front of his truck to wait. Within seconds the cops were there. Plural cops. First thing they wanted to know was where the shotgun was. Inside the back door.
So then they set about getting the story. Seems there was a repo order out on a black 454SS (they were all black) and he'd been looking for it all week. He saw me drive past the liquor store where he'd been sitting. So he followed me home to repo my truck. Cool. So the cop was a little short with me, but he asked my why I hadn't made my payments. Good question. I had the answer "because I didn't take a loan out on it."
So I took the offensive (I can be pretty offensive when I try). I told the cop if he'd hold this car thief, I'd go upstairs and get my title. Clear title, as with no lien registered on it. The cop said that sounds good. So I went in, found my file folder with the title and registration and came back out. The cop looked at it, then walked around to look at the license plate, then to see the VIN. Yep.
Cop #2 was with the thief. The cop with my paperwork wanted to see his paperwork. He had a scribbled note that he felt was a good work order. Except for a minor problem: Wrong license number, wrong VIN. He hadn't bothered to check, he had a truck to take with him. Not a good situation. So I became even more irritated. His wrecker didn't even have a company name or phone number, just an old truck with a wrecker arm. I wanted him arrested for attempted theft. The cop was more cool headed.
They let the scoundrel go with a warning to never be seen again by them. Then the cop nicely told me it wasn't OK to shoot car thieves, even if they did deserve it. It was maybe 6:00 PM, broad daylight.
I asked what would have happened if he'd gotten away with my truck. The answer was classic. I'd have never seen it again. It had high demand parts, it would have gone to a wrecking yard, impound lot. When they discovered a mistake, it would be too risky and embarrassing to return it. It would have submerged.
I was pretty upset for a few weeks after that. I parked on the inside with my wifes car on the outside. I'd hear them moving it. But I had to drive it to work each day. If it had gone missing, I'd have tracked the guy to the end of the earth. He'd have paid, big time.