As reported, a team of three Professional Recovery Services employees went to repossess a pair of vehicles from an address in Hoffman Estates, IL. They found only one vehicle, an Isuzu SUV, and hitched it to their tow truck. An employee went to door of the house to notify the owner of the repossession, but no one answered. Moments later, a man came out of the house, and slipped on the ice. When the employee asked the man if he was OK, the man pointed a handgun at the employee and ordered him to unhitch the Isuzu SUV. The employee acted as though he was going to comply, but instead jumped into the tow truck and escaped. The armed man fired 5 or 6 shots at the fleeing tow truck, but the employee was unharmed.
Repossession industry professional quoted by the Chicago Tribune placed some of the blame for this crime on the flagging US economy. I find such a suggestion to be without merit. A person who is behind on payments for their vehicles has many options other than committing assault with a deadly weapon, and/or attempted murder. They could return the vehicles, and purchase less expensive ones that will meet their needs for transportation. Or, they could move from the relatively expensive Hoffman Estates to a less expensive suburb. But shooting at a repossession team, which is only doing it lawful job, is not a reasonable option. However this shooter won’t have to worry about car payments for quite a while, as prison inmates can have neither an Isuzu SUV nor a Cadillac.
This also reminds me of a shooting in Chicago from a few months ago: A city employee was putting boots on cars with multiple outstanding parking tickets, when the owner of one such car appeared. Seeing that his car was booted, the owner became enraged and chased the city employee with a stick, before running away. The owner then returned moments later and shot the city employee, leaving him seriously injured. Just as happened in the Hoffman Estates incident, we had someone who didn’t pay their debts, and when faced with the consequences, became violent towards an employee who was just doing his job. This is yet more proof that Illinois needs concealed carry. Those criminals willing to take a shot at such employees are just as willing to ignore the ban on carrying a gun, which leaves the law abiding repo men and city employees unarmed and vulnerable.