Repo men, interrupted

Brothers arrested after allegedly taking their job too far

By Maria Cramer, Globe Staff  |  May 23, 2007

BROCKTON -- Repo men are known to be aggressive when they hunt down debtors. They often call bosses, landlords, and relatives to track their quarry, or lie in wait at a debtor's house to take the possessions in the middle of the night.

But prosecutors said yesterday that brothers Michael and Robert Simeone Jr. of Brockton, who work for their family's repossession business, went too far when they confronted Sara Bradley outside her future mother-in-law's house in East Bridgewater on Friday night and tried to take the 2000 Ford Focus on which she said she was three weeks and about $250 late in making payments.

As Bradley sat at the wheel with her fiancé and her 5-year-old daughter in the car, Michael Simeone, 17, walked up, stuck his hand inside the car, and tried to yank her out so violently that he ripped off her necklace and punched her in the face, the Plymouth district attorney's office said.

Terrified she was being carjacked, Bradley, 25, sped off.

"My daughter is screaming at me, 'Just go, mama,' " she said in a telephone interview yesterday. "I was horrified. I was absolutely horrified. I was scared for my life. I was scared for my daughter's life."

The brothers, who were driving with four teenage friends in a 1997 Saturn, pursued the family for about 5 miles to a stoplight in Abington, where Robert Simeone Jr., 21, ran out of the car and jumped on the hood of Bradley's car, a prosecutor said yesterday in Brockton District Court.

Robert Simeone then began pounding on the windshield like a madman, said prosecutor Brendan Barnes.

With Simeone still on the hood, Bradley drove to the Abington police station, where the brothers were arrested and the car was repossessed.

"This appears to be two young men in the repo business going above and beyond the call of duty," Barnes said.

But the brothers' lawyers and their father, Robert Simeone Sr., owner of South Shore Auto Recovery, said the brothers dispute punching Bradley or grabbing her necklace and were acting defensively.

They said Bradley drove over Michael Simeone's foot after he reached in to turn off the car engine.

At the stop light, Robert Simeone stepped in front of the car to tell her they were repossessors, but when Bradley accelerated, they said, he had to leap on the hood or risk being run over.

"I believe what they told me," said Robert Simeone Sr., who said he has lost four customers since the episode. Repossession companies typically work for car dealerships, banks, and other creditors. Vehicles are by far the most common target.

The two brothers pleaded not guilty to charges of assault and battery with a dangerous weapon, for allegedly using their car to cut off Bradley's. They also pleaded not guilty to disorderly conduct and disturbing the peace. Michael Simeone was ordered held on $10,000 cash bail, and Robert Simeone was ordered held without bail because of pending drug charges.

Aurelie M. Couturier, Robert Simeone Jr.'s lawyer, said her client is eager to prove his innocence. "He tells me he wants to fight this case and he wants to take it all the way to jury trial," she said in court yesterday.

She described the repossession business as one fraught with risk and odd hours. In this case, she said, the brothers alerted the East Bridgewater police they planned to repossess the car and tried to show the family the paperwork giving them permission to take the Ford.

The brothers have been an integral part of the family business since last year, when their father suffered a stroke and had to scale back his hours. It was unclear last night if there is a minimum age to be a repo man.

The elder Simeone, though, said his sons should not have pursued the car the way they did.

"I think they could have just walked away, save it for another day," Simeone said outside the courtroom. "It was unprofessional. But did they break any laws? No."

Bradley said the brothers never showed her any documents.

Her fiancé, Charles Murphy, said that since the episode, the couple's daughter, Kalley, has had trouble sleeping and is nervous when getting into cars.

"She has asked us a few times if those bad guys are going to come again," he said. "We've convinced her it won't happen again."

Maria Cramer can be reached at mcramer@globe.com.