Caught On Camera: Woman Tries To Avoid Repo Driver

ADELANTO (CBSLA) — It might've looked like an episode of "Operation Repo," but Thursday's failed repossession in Adelanto was very real, with both parties putting people in real danger.

Cellphone video shows how during the wild scene near the intersection of Hwy. 395 and Palmdale Road, a woman whose car is about to be repossessed drives her car onto the sidewalk with small children in the back seat.

"I thought she was going to crash through the building because we were inside when that happened, and she was getting really close trying to reverse," Juan Castillo told KCBS News. He and his father were inside an insurance broker's office at the time.

Castillo said a few moments before the scene erupted into chaos, a tow truck had pulled up behind the woman's car, ostensibly to repossess the car. The tow truck operator did not count on anyone being inside, however.

"I turn around and see the repo truck lifting up the back, and there were kids in there," recalled Castillo. "I was like, 'Oh, poor kids! They're probably crying.'"

Castillo said that was the moment an older woman jumped into to the driver's seat of the car and hit the gas, disconnecting it from the tow truck.

The woman jumped the curb and drove through a flower bed as she attempted to flee.

"She just, like, took off," said Castillo. "She messed up her own tire, right side of the car. It was bad. The kids were crying, they were yelling."

Castillo said the tow truck driver then went after the woman, hitting a parked car in the process. He said the driver was lucky no one in the crowded parking lot was injured.

"They probably should have just let her go and get her another time or [at] a different place," Castillo said.

CBS2 contacted the tow truck company but had received no response Thursday evening.

The woman driving the vehicle told CBS2 she had filed a police report on the incident.