Philly Police Inspector Authorized Violence to Collect Debt

There are a lot of important lessons to be learned after reading about Daniel Castro, the ex-Philadelphia police inspector indicted on hiring debt collectors to “rough up” a debtor. Here’s a short list of what I came up with:

(1) Do some due diligence. Castro was out about $90 thousand after a failed real estate deal with business partner Wilson Encarnacion and, understandably, wanted it back. When approached by someone offering a easy way to recoup his losses, Castro jumped at the chance. Had Castro done some due diligence — had he, say, checked Angie’s list or the Better Business Bureau or even asked if the guys he was hiring were actually debt collectors (they weren’t; they were FBI informants), he might have saved himself some embarrassment later.

(2) Don’t hire anyone who offers “roughing up” as a service. Yes, I get it. We all get it: losing money sucks. And there are thousands of legitimate collection agencies out there who follow the law on a daily basis and help their customers recoup money from debtors. However, hiring some guys who say that the last push they need in their campaign to get your money back is a little roughing up of the debtor, that should be your sign to close your account with that particular agency. And report them: because they’re breaking the law. Especially if you’re a police inspector who (a) should know better; and (b) has dreams of being police commissioner.

(3) Breaking your mother’s heart is SUPER embarrassing. So is getting arrested in front of your kids. Castro found out the hard way that the police and FBI don’t care if it’s your carpool day: they will arrest you. As they should, because hiring people to break legs in pursuit of a debt is illegal, and no legitimate collection agency would ever counsel that. (See 1 above.) And, as Castro explained while breaking down in the witness box: “I broke my mom’s heart.” With Mother’s Day coming up? I don’t even think they make a card for that.

(4) It’s not entrapment. This was Castro’s feeble attempt at some sort of face-saving: “You sent this man–” the informant posing as an ad-hoc debt collector “–after me.” However, the informant never said, “You have to let us rough this guy up or else.” There was no quid pro quo relationship. The informant said, “Hey, you wanna?” And Castro said, “Sure.” And then there he is, getting cuffed in front of his kid and breaking his mother’s heart.

(5) This isn’t a collection agency issue. It’s a shady police inspector issue. It’s easy to spin this so that it’s somehow negative press for the collection agency industry — but it would be incorrect. Agencies are required to know the law, and definitely know that threatening violence is absolutely a fast-track to indictment. Daniel Castro, not the collections industry, is in the wrong in this story.

Feel free to share any additional lessons you’ve learned from Castro’s unfortunate example below. We’ll feature some of our favorites in a follow-up.