Living from paycheck to paycheck is scary, especially if your home is just a car, and for one Texas mother, that home was threatened to be taken away. Reddit user Bg_Luxury shared her predicament on r/povertyfinance, explaining how she and her teenage daughter have been living inside a vehicle for months. With the car now three months behind on payments, the mom claims a finance company representative said they’ll “pull them out and take the car while they’re inside.”
“Can they legally do that?” Bg_Luxury asked, clearly shaken by what she was told. The mother says she recently found a new job but might not get paid before the payments on her car are due. And although she plans to pay them, there’s no telling whether the lender will wait. Without the car, she and her daughter will lose their only shelter, leaving them homeless and without anywhere to stay.
Some Redditors share their own story, with one recalling how their mother’s car was taken away while they were at a gas station. “By the time we came back out the car was gone. Repo’d. We were stranded for hours,” they wrote. “They can’t drag you out,” said another Reddit user. “But they can certainly take the car while it’s empty.”
Reddit Fears Police Will Get Involved
Many commenters began debating whether the police could get involved. While the financing company might not be able to physically remove the mother and daughter from their car, a court order would let the authorities do it for them. One person argued that because this is a “civil matter,” police might not get involved, but others responded that law enforcement will favor businesses’ interests.
“Police serve and protect business interests. The supreme court ruled they have no duty to serve and protect civilians,” said a Redditor. “That makes me sick to read,” another wrote in response. “Police don’t always do what they are supposed to do,” agreed a third.
Bg_Luxury has responded in the comments, saying that she hopes to keep the car on the move to avoid getting it taken away until she can make the payments. In reponse to one user asking how the lender would even keep track of a car in a populated city, OP replied, “The agents I spoke to said something about traffic cameras and some other stuff.”
Legally speaking, the lender isn’t in the wrong for planning to take back what the mother couldn’t pay for. However, because the car is where Bg_Luxury and her daughter live, ethics and morals definitely play a role in the conversation.
