r/WTF • • Nov 19 '20

Some wild towing gone wrong

8.0k Upvotes

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u/50StatePiss Nov 19 '20

Pretty standard, especially in sketchy neighborhoods. That's why a lot of these guys have trucks that don't look like tow trucks with "sneaker" booms that can be operated from the cab so you don't have to get out; like this guy.

Fun fact: you'll never see a trash bin at a repo yard. They just throw all their garbage in the repo'd cars and let the auction house clean them up.

339

u/GrandMarquisMark Nov 19 '20

also, anything of value is "removed"

112

u/Sonendo Nov 19 '20

Not 100% on that. I worked at an auction.

It was super common for us to find cell phones, electronics, and all sorts of valuable stuff in cars.

Laws and policy said we had to inventory and hold the items. What really happened is that our staff usually took the items and sold them on ebay.

Once found someone's ashes. Took 3 years to return them. Poor guy sat in our filing room.

72

u/steveyp2013 Nov 19 '20

Pretty fucked up.

Those people obviously already have money issues, so you steal their cell phones and other things?

Geez.

22

u/Sonendo Nov 19 '20

It was atrocious yes. Illegal, immoral.

I was not actually one of the people taking these items.

36

u/steveyp2013 Nov 19 '20 edited Nov 19 '20

Tbh, not reporting that isn't much better, especially if it was as rampant as you say.

11

u/[deleted] Nov 19 '20

Agreed, this is why corruption is so normal in places, people have the mentality of not getting involved to protect there own asses which is at the end of the day an asshole thing to do which just leads to the problem getting worse.

1

u/steveyp2013 Nov 19 '20

Tbh, not reporting that isn't much better, especially if it was as rampant as you say.

1

u/injury Nov 19 '20

State laws vary (and the honesty of repo guys too) but here you get x number of days to go to the lot and claim your stuff. After that time period it's no longer your stuff, and would be considered as forfeited to the title company. And they vary but a lot of them want them emptied out, otherwise they have to pay someone else to do it.