Pastor Mike the Repo Guy

Freaky night. I just helped repo a Volkswagon Passat for my brother-in-law, Kory, who owns a car lot. Seems like someone had gone delinquent on their payments, so in East Tennessee, the car legally belongs to him. So, around midnight, four of us guys set out to get it back. Game on! (Here we're alerting the cops to the fact that we're poaching the car, so they're aware when the current owners call it in as stolen.)

Giggling like freshmen at their first dance, the four of us developed our plan. Katie's two brothers, Kory and Kyler (the Hollywood film editor) would stay in constant phone contact with us while my twin brother, Christopher, and I would actually jack the car. Sweet.

I must've drawn the short straw, because I was the designated photo/videographer for the mission, while Christopher got to drive the Passat. Well, it beat staying home, let me tell you. Hearts pounding, we arrived on scene at the rear of the apartment building. There she was, with her front bumper sitting about 5 feet from the sliding glass door to the unit! This was going to take stealth and speed.

Getting in as quietly as we could and being careful not to slam our doors, Christopher and I kept a wary eye on the sliding glass door and windows right in front of us while he inserted in the extra key Kory always keeps just in case a situation such as this one becomes necessary.

After a couple of unsuccessful attempts at starting during which every second felt like an hour, the VW finally sprang to life. Slamming it into reverse, Christopher lurched backward in the darkness with the headlights as yet unlit. I was freaked out that someone was going to come out that back door at any second. When he had it turned around, Kory and Kyler roared out the driveway ahead of us and onto the country road toward home.

Stopping at a local gas station to admire our work, we finally let out a sign of relief. I called Katie to let her know we were safe, and then we began noticing the first of several bad news signs. The entire air blower assembly was sitting on the back seat of the car. Then, on the way home, it started smoking. Stopping in the middle of the road, Kory checked it out. Turns out the turkeys had blown the head gasket to the tune of about a $1200 repair job. Yikes. It's no wonder they didn't want to keep making payments on a dead car.

I hope you enjoy the videos as much as we enjoyed making them! (Note to dial-up users: Why bother? You have better things to do than wait for these videos to load! P.S. Get faster internet access!)


Move over, Dog the Bounty Hunter! Yeah, right. Though I enjoyed the rush, I'm not sure I'm exactly cut out to be a full-time repo guy. Pastor Mike the Repo Guy. Hmm. On second thought, maybe I should call up the Discovery Channel after all.