Jim Ford, owner of Illini Asset Recovery, isn’t your typical repo man. When he’s not towing cars he’s paying them off!
“I’ve been shot at, ran over, just about everything you can imagine,” he told Fox News. “I haven’t been stabbed yet.”
While his job can be tough and even life threatening, he hasn’t become a bitter repo man. When he arrived in Red Bud, Illinois to tow a vehicle he met the car’s owners, Stan and Pat Kipping.
“You know, it was just one of those repo’s,” Ford explains. “My grandparents are gone, but you know– I could see them in the Kippings. I knew what was going on. The cost of their medications have doubled or tripled, and I know that’s happening to everybody. I knew why they were behind.”
“We had to go to the doctor, drug store, and grocery,” said Pat. “That’s about all we ever got to do.”
Ford repossessed their car but then immediately jumped on the phone with the bank.
“I pulled over about a block away from their house and called the bank and said… we got to do something. How about I just pay it current right now?”
He quickly set up a GoFundMe account which raised most of the needed cash in about eight hours.
The vehicle was quickly returned to the struggling elderly couple. “It’s just like hitting the lottery,” said Stan. “I’m just so happy, I can’t believe it.”
“It just looks so pretty,” said Pat.
Not only did Ford help pay for the vehicle, he also had the oil changed and had the vehicle detailed for the couple.
“We owe a drug store $500,” said Pat. “We owe IGA, our grocery store, money. And then this happened. It’s made me think that there are very good people out there, and it’s not all bad.”
It’s not too common that a community of businesses come together to make sure a family has their needs met, something magical is definitely happening in Red Bud, Illinois.
