Fred Newton is a repo man. Don't make your car payments and Newton will be along to get the bank's car. It's not your car until the last payment. Miss a couple and the repo man will come along.

It's not always easy to be a repo man. Newton got shot once. The jury found the defendant not guilty. They said later is wasn't because they believed the defendant so much as they despised repo men. Newton's former wife wife called him a "bank officer".

He got caught in the middle of a repo once by a guy with a large gun.

"Say, you tryin' to take my car?"

"I got a court order here."

"I got a gun here."

"Uh, maybe I ought to leave. Man, pay up or I'll be back."

"I'll be here. Me an' the gun."

Newton always tried to sneak up in the middle of the night and grab the car. No fuss, no bother, no gunfire. The no gunfire was important. His boss told him once, "Getting shot ain't worth it if it means you can't drive the car away."

Newton once got away cleanly. He got to the corner and figured he had it made. Then he felt something touch his neck. It was cold and metallic. It was a shotgun.

"Now, you want to drive me and my car back to the house or do I have to spend the day cleaning up the mess that used to be you."

Newton was a thief. If there was anything of value in the car when he repoed it he took it. He called it a bonus. The bank didn't care as long as they got their car back. The people who lost the car were so busy trying to get the car back they were grateful to get it. If they didn't get it back they'd raise a stink. No one ever listened to them.

Newton once repoed his mother's car. She knew he did it even though he denied it.

"You're an ungrateful little bas-"

"You didn't pay your payments. What kind of example is that for your own son?"

"Fred, you're forty-two years old. You don't need an example. You need a butt kicking. Your own mother!"

"Hey, ma! I once repoed my wife's car. That's why I'm divorced."