My fiance rented a laptop computer and a gaming system from our local American Rental store. They seemed very friendly at first, but started off badly when they refused to put her on a biweekly payment plan when I told them I get paid biweekly.
She got behind on my payments due to losing my job, and tried to make arrangements to pay them but they refused her, saying that she had to pay "in full or we'll get the sheriff out there."
Early last week, she got up and put the laptop in the trunk of her locked vehicle with the intention of returning it and only maintaining payments on the gaming system, since it was gotten for the kids. The kids ended up having a delay at school due to heavy fog, so she was an hour behind in leaving versus when she had planned.
When she got out to her car, local thugs had broken into it ONCE AGAIN. Usually they just get in and mess stuff up, but the laptop and some child support checks of hers were gone, as well as the interior of the car was damaged. She filed a police report immediately and faxed a copy to American Rental.
This morning, my oldest daughter was watching her two youngest siblings when American Rental came knocking. They forcibly came into my home and demanded to search the house looking for the laptop as well as the gaming system (which was sitting in plain view). My daughter said she had to call her father, and they told her they'd get the sheriff out here and tried to follow her to the back of the house. When she called me, I told them to get out of the house and I'd call them when he was home. They proceeded to tell my daughter that they'd "be back shortly" and would "sit outside the house until their mom came home". She was terrified.
They came back about 10 minutes later. Once again, my daughter told them to leave. They did, but then they called under "private numbers" and their own number, plus an employee's cell phone number over 10 times. This was in just under an hour.
What are my rights? My wife filed the laptop as stolen and I don't appreciate them harassing my child. They told my daughter that they'd report it to the police that she was home alone with her 8 and 10 year old sister-she's 13, a week away from 14, and was home alone for just under 2 hours.
I remember a local police officer telling me when I was talking to him about it that all they can do is harass us and take my wife to court under small claims-is this true? If so, I'm tempted to just have my wife tell them to take us to court.
Please help!!!
Thanks.
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