Police: Tow truck driver claims to be shot at while repossessing car in Dayton

DAYTON — A repo man told police that someone fired shorts at him while he was trying to do his job and pick up a vehicle in Dayton.

Major Jason Hall, Dayton Police, said that officers got reports of a man who claimed to have been shot at while repossessing a vehicle in the 500 block of Kolping Ave around 11:15 p.m. Thursday.

Police said the tow truck operator was trying to repossess the vehicle due to a non-payment and had a lawful order to take a vehicle back for a loan company, but someone on the street didn’t like what was going on.

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“He believed he’d been shot at,” Hall said.

Hall told News Center 7 that the officers caught up with the driver near Xenia and Linden avenues. After determining that he was uninjured, they moved back into the neighborhood where at least two shots were fired.

“We were able to identify all the people involved and recover a handgun that was discharged,” Hall said, noting the shots were fired into the air.

Hall said they can get two different stories from the people involved, but police will continue to gather all the information they can. From there, they will speak with the prosecutor’s office, who will decide what, if any, charges will be filed. So far, no arrests have been made, but police do believe they’ve identified the person that fired the weapons.

Officers said that repossessing vehicles can lead to a heightened stress.

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“This individual is obviously engaged in a business, a job, that is kind of stressful and kind of dangerous. Anyway, repossessing vehicles tends to have heightened tension,” Hall said.

Repossession numbers are growing at surprising rates. One loan company said there are 2.2 million vehicles repossessed every year in the United States. Some reasons for that include high inflation, higher gas prices, job cuts and higher car payments.

The average monthly vehicle payment in the country is not $718.

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