Podbit · The Hidden Third
Michelle's first skip-tracing job involved locating a van from a family in bereavement using a ruse phone call. She refused to take it until after the funeral, then helped the family use a life insurance payout to buy it back. She's been friends with her debtors ever since.
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At 13:53 · chapter starts 13:44
Michelle's entry into skip tracing is rooted in a painful personal chapter. In her 30s, a controlling fiancé hit her once — and she spent an entire year ensuring he was prosecuted to the fullest extent. During that year, she was working at a large Texas personal injury law firm, where she discovered a natural gift for gathering and organizing information. Her boss gave her two weeks off to handle the situation. During that time she met Russell, a man in the repossession business, who introduced her to the world of skip tracing — which she initially thought sounded illegal [1] — Michelle Gomez "Michelle's first skip-tracing job involved locating a van from a family in bereavement using a ruse phone call. She refused to take it unti…" 13:53 . Her first test case: a van belonging to a family whose grandfather had just died, which had been missing for eight months. Michelle located it in a single phone call using a ruse about being a florist, gathered the funeral details, and refused to seize the van until after the burial. She later helped the family use their life insurance payout to buy it back — and became friends with them. That first case crystallized both her professional method and her ethical core.
Michelle's very first repossession case involved a van owed for 8 months with a debt of $7,000–$8,000; she located it via a ruse call and helped the family keep it by using their life insurance payout.
At 4'11" and 100 pounds, Michelle Gomez is the last person anyone expects to show up with a warrant. That invisibility is her greatest tactical asset — and she weaponizes it every time she takes a case.
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