Crazy Service of Process

I’m sure all of you out there have had a situation where things don’t quite go to plan, but in the Mesa process serving industry, you have the added bonus of working with people who generally are not all that pleased to see you. Recently, I had just one of these situations myself.

It was already beginning to get dark when I rang the doorbell on the Mesa property. A man answered, and as I explained who I was I could hear a woman’s voice hollering “Who is it?” in the background. The husband shouted over his shoulder, “He’s a process server,” as he took the papers and began to look over them,

A screech from somewhere in the house called back, “He’s a WHAT???” That’s about when I knew things were probably going to get ugly. From over the husband’s shoulder, I saw the woman round the corner like a bat out of hell. She shoved past her husband, waving her finger in my face and hollering every manner of obscenities I had ever heard (and in this line of work, you hear a lot).

I tried my best to keep a calm demeanor as she backed me off the porch. I held both hands out, stepping away slowly while she wailed at me to “Get the F— off her property.” I insisted that I’m just a Mesa process server, and requested that she please calm down so we could talk. None of this, of course, had any effect on her screaming. Luckily, her husband had already taken the papers, so as soon as I hit the pavement I hustled back to my truck to write up the report. Just as I closed the cab door and reached for the dome light, a fist knocked hard on the glass. The woman had followed me to car. I hit “lock” as quickly as I could and shouted through the glass, “Ma’am, please go back to your house.” All of the sudden I noticed her husband, standing on the opposite side of the car. My heart rate picking up a little at this point, I shouted for them to back off, put it in drive, and sped up the road.

I pulled off half a mile away and got out to make sure the truck was okay before I started writing up my report. It was dark now, and I wanted to make sure there was no damage to the vehicle from when the husband had snuck up around the side. My flashlight beam scanned the tires, but everything seemed to be okay. All of the sudden crunching gravel jerked my head up as a car whipped into the lot and blocked my truck in. Husband and wife both got out, still swearing and very, very angry. At this point I reached down and obviously exposed my sidearm as I walked back around to the driver’s side of the truck. I was trying to keep the vehicle between us if at all possible. Seeing the gun seemed to quiet them both down. My flashlight shone back and forth between their faces in the dark. The wife looked right at me through the glare, hissing, “We’ve got your plate number now. We can find you.”

“Ma’am,” I said, “I’m going to have to include this incident in my write-up if you don’t get back in the car now.” I lifted my cell phone so they could see it.

“I’m going to call the police unless you leave.”

They looked at each other, then back at me for an unbearably long moment, and then–finally–got back into their car and pulled away.

Needless to say, it was a while before my breathing calmed down enough to write my report.

Published By – ASAP Serve, LLC

*ALL LOCATIONS BY APPOINTMENT ONLY