Times are tough and, with numerous companies and executives losing their cash flow, they can no longer afford the winged luxuries they once could. Sounds like a job for Nick Popovich: Aeronautical Repo Man.
Mr. Popovich is not your typical repo man scouring the streets in a nondescript Super Duty F-250 with lynching chains on the back. Instead, he spends his time traveling the globe in search of the next big treasure. That treasure? Millionaire's winged play things.
Popovich has kept his multi-million dollar repossession firm running for twenty plus years with his wife Sage and he's collected quite the bounty over the years. His biggest catch has been the 747, of which he's nabbed 1,300 over the years. With the rest of his crew from Sage-Popovich they've managed to capture 2,000 delinquent airplanes from crooked French businessmen, South American arms dealers and everything in between. He's spent time in jail because of this job and he's almost been killed multiple times.
One of the largest single jobs he and his firm have tackled was the repossession of a fleet of corporate helicopters from flight school chain, Silver State, netting him a nice six-figure payment. They captured all of them using 125 flatbed trucks to haul out the 240 helicopters from 51 different Silver State locations as well as everything else they could grab including spare parts, computers and furniture.
There are many more wild stories that Popovich tells in Salon's article which you can read HERE. (Hat Tip To Less Lincoln!)
[via salon] Image credit: Flickr