A backyard confrontation over a repossessed outbuilding left a 70-year-old Mount Vernon woman with a broken hip, a broken arm, and 11 days in the hospital — and no criminal charges were filed. Patricia Humphrey was shoved to the ground on Sept. 14 as a couple working to repossess her son's shed dismantled her fence, and the Knox County Prosecutor's Office later described what happened as “mutual combat.”
According to ABC6, Jonathan and Rachel Hostetler arrived at Humphrey's home that day to repossess her son's outbuilding. Video obtained by ABC6 Investigates from the Knox County Prosecutor's Office through a public-records request shows Humphrey confronting the couple as they took apart her fence. She tried to shut off their equipment and picked up a shovel and pieces of the fence before Jonathan Hostetler pushed her to the ground, the outlet reported. In the footage, Humphrey can be heard saying, “Hurry! Get the law here! Hurry!”
The repo team did not call 911 until after the repossession was already finished, per the same report. Humphrey's daughter, Tamatha Benedict, told ABC6 she learned about video of the incident from friends the day after it happened and said she had never seen a repossession proceed that way. “My heart dropped because that push was so intense,” Benedict said, adding that watching her mother shoved was distressing.
Conflicting Accounts and a Case File Video
Jonathan and Rachel Hostetler posted a 40-minute video of the incident to their YouTube channel, and it surpassed 100,000 views before being made private, the station reported. A separate seven-minute version of the video was kept in the Knox County Prosecutor's Office case file. In his own account to the prosecutor, Jonathan Hostetler acknowledged, “I probably did stuff that I shouldn't have,” but also told Humphrey, “You beat me up first,” and provided the prosecutor's office with a photo of a cut on his arm, according to ABC6's reporting.
The prosecutor's office ultimately decided not to file criminal charges, calling the incident mutual combat. ABC6's review of public records found no court order authorizing the repossession. A police report identified the Hostetlers as working with Preferred Trucking LLC, which repossessed the shed on behalf of RTO Management LLC; both companies are based in Ashland County, per the outlet, which said it was unable to reach either company for comment.
What the Law Says About Repo Limits
Attorney Joe Patchen, of Carlile, Patchen and Murphy, told ABC6 that repossession agents are not supposed to breach the peace or enter fenced areas without permission. He said agents who encounter a fenced area or a home without permission should stop and try again another day, using another method. Patchen said companies could be held responsible for damages, including medical bills, if someone is hurt following an unlawful entry.
Separately, an excerpt of Ohio Revised Code Section 1309.609 states that a secured party may, without removing equipment, render it unusable and dispose of collateral on a debtor's premises under a related section of state law. Legal experts cited in the same ABC6 report say a repossession becomes unlawful once it breaches the peace, and they recommend avoiding confrontation, recording any interaction, and filing a report for criminal trespass or property damage if rights are violated.
A Pattern Beyond One Backyard
The Mount Vernon case is not an isolated flashpoint. Court cases involving contracts and default accounts in Mount Vernon jumped 70 percent from 2024 to 2025, the station reported, pointing to a broader wave of repossession and collection disputes moving through local courts.
A similar standoff played out in Portsmouth, where a resident told police that employees of Rent-2-Own repeatedly came to his home trying to repossess property, pounding on windows and looking through windows in the backyard in a way that frightened his elderly mother, according to Scioto County Daily News.
