Debtor's Personal Property

What do you do when you repossess a vehicle and find illegal items, such as guns, drugs or weapons in the personal property that was left in the vehicle when you repossessed it?

Dealing with a debtor's personal property that was left in a repossessed vehicle has been a nightmare for the repossession service industry since the very first repossession ever performed.

So what do you do when your repossession service finds something illegal in a vehicle you have repossessed?

Let's say you find illegal drugs or paraphernalia in a vehicle you repossessed. Check with your local police as to how they want to handle situations like this. Many police departments will instruct your company to dispose of small amounts drugs by dumping them into a toilet. Any sort of larger quantities the police would expect a telephone call and probably send an officer to take custody of the illegal substances you found in the repossessed car.

Your condition should also note that " a small bag of a leafy green substance was found in the glove box". You should also note that the drugs were either destroyed per police instructions, or confiscated by the local police.

Your local police should also be notified if you find any sort of weapon or gun in a vehicle you repossessed. As a repossession service you do not want to be responsible for turning a hand gun or any other weapon over to anyone but the police.

Your condition report should also show a description of the weapon that was found in the repossessed vehicle, and exactly what police officer took possession of the weapon.

Many repossession services have started inventorying the contents of all repossessed vehicles in a garage bay with video cameras so that they have video tape of them pulling the car into the garage bay, unlocking and opening the car, all of the contents of the vehicle are placed on a table, bagged, and sealed with a tamper proof seal.

This may seem a bit extreme but it does prevent many of the common problems that come up in dealing with debtor's personal property in the repossession service industry.

What's your opinion?

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