An Illinois repo man ended up helping a couple pay off their car after he was sent to their home to repossess the vehicle, KTLA sister station KTVI in St. Louis reported this week.
Repo man Jim Ford, co-ower of Illini Asset Recover, wears his company name on his back, and his heart on his sleeve. His job is to “take cars … from people who don’t pay.”
“’I’ve been shot at, ran over, just about everything you can imagine,” he said. “I haven’t been stabbed yet.”
There’s not a place on the map Ford hasn’t traveled to repossess somebody’s car for a bank. But he wasn’t prepared for what he saw when he arrived at the Illinois home of Stan and Pat Kipping.
“You know, it was just one of those repos,” Ford told KTVI. “My grandparents are gone, but you know – I could see them in the Kippings. I knew what was going on. The cost of their medications have doubled or tripled, and I know that’s happening to everybody. I knew why they were behind.”
“We had to go to the doctor, drug store, and grocery,” said Pat Kipping. “That’s about all we ever got to do.”
And now their transportation was gone. Ford did repossess their car, but then he immediately got on the phone with the bank.
“I pulled over about a block away from their house and called the bank and said… we got to do something,” Ford said. “How about I just pay it current right now?”
Ford promptly set up a GoFundMe account.
He said, “We raised most of it in the first eight hours. I think might just reactivate it, because they are a lot of people who keep asking to donate.”
On Monday, the Kippings got their four-wheel freedom back.
“It’s just like hitting the lottery,” said Stan. “I’m just so happy, I can’t believe it.”
In addition to paying the vehicle off, Ford and his fellow benefactors got the oil changed and had the car detailed.
“We owe a drugstore $500,” said Pat. “We owe IGA, our grocery store, money. And then this happened. It’s made me think that there are very good people out there, and it’s not all bad.”
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