I am a Recovery Agent
I figure I see the business end of a firearm about 3 or 4 times a year, mostly from law enforcment, and I will say I am way more scared of them then I am of a upset debtor who is about to lose their car. But you never know... .....
This is a artical written about a friend of mine about 3 weeks ago, Stockton is about 30 miles north of Modesto.
By Joe Tone Record Staff Writer Published Saturday, July 3, 2004
STOCKTON -- A single father who made his living in the sometimes-dangerous world of repossessing property was shot to death in his bedroom early Friday while two of his daughters slept in the next room, police, family and friends of the man said.
Neighbors on east Stockton's North Golden Gate Avenue said three loud pops sliced through the morning silence around 2 a. m. Friday. Two days before Independence Day, they dismissed the sounds as celebratory fireworks.
Minutes later, paramedics arrived with the shriek of sirens, and they quickly pronounced dead 43-year-old Billy Allmon, a professional "collateral recovery agent" and the father of daughters 8, 16 and 18 years old.
It remains unclear whether the shooting was connected to Allmon's job as a repossession agent. Police have located no suspects, and detectives will release few details on the shooting, spokesman Sean Fenner said.
But one neighbor, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said after the shots riled him from his sleep, he looked out his bedroom window and saw a man riding a bicycle hurriedly away from Allmon's home.
His two daughters asleep, Allmon had been in his bedroom with a friend when there was a knock at the window, said his boss, Shane Freitas, who was not there but has spoken to the friend who was.
Allmon went to the window, Freitas said. The bullets shattered the glass.
Allmon was raised in San Jose and came to Stockton when he was 18, said his mother, Joann Allmon. He lived in the tall, white home for about a year and a half.
He worked constantly but made time to raise his daughters and root hard for Jeff Gordon, his favorite NASCAR driver, his mother said.
Though it is not encouraged by Allmon's company, Accurate Adjustments, Allmon often took his tow truck home, the cars he had repossessed still hitched to the back, those who knew him said.
On a few occasions, car owners followed Allmon home and confronted him, said his neighbor, who witnessed a few such exchanges. Allmon remained calm and talked his way out of any trouble, he said.
"He was really a good negotiator," the neighbor said. "It's just his job and somebody's gotta do it. And he's doing it. "
Allmon worked with Accurate Adjustments for four years and had never run into any serious problems, Freitas said. In previous years as an agent, he was occasionally threatened but never hurt, his mother said. "Bill was a big guy," she said.
Freitas acknowledged the business can be risky -- in 16 years, he's been shot at once and had a dozen or so guns pulled on him.
But he described Allmon, who was close to 6-foot-4 and around 250 pounds, as a gentle agent. "I'm baffled," Freitas said.
Early Friday, the home was quiet, save for the occasional bark from one of the two pit bulls playing in the fenced-in side yard. A thick sheet of plywood was nailed over Allmon's bedroom window.
Later, Allmon's family loaded his belongings -- TVs and DVDs and more -- into their cars.
In the neighborhood, north of Fremont Street near Highway 99, there are small, simple houses on large lots, some of them shadowed by ancient Oak trees. It is a usually quiet mix of longtime residents and short-term renters, people there said.
The man who saw the bicyclist pedaling away has lived there for 40 years, and he had come to enjoy Allmon's company as a neighbor. Had he known those cracks were gunshots, he said, he surely would have jumped in his truck and chased the man down.
"I thought it was firecrackers," he said, and later, he repeated himself. "I thought it was firecrackers. "
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