Colorado deputies conduct till taps for stormwater money

Under a court order obtained by Colorado-based debt collection agency A-1 Collections, Colorado Springs deputies recently took money from an Ace Loans pawn shop that owed stormwater fees, the Gazette reports. Using till tap tactics - a seizure of money by sheriff's deputies to pay a judgement - deputies entered Ace Loans last week and emptied cash registers, retrieving around $800 on Friday and about $100 more on Saturday, KKTV-TV reports. "It was like getting robbed, legally," Ace Loans assistant manager Chris Maples told the news source. The deputies weren't told by A-1 what the money was for, and while El Paso County sheriff Terry Maketa has temporarily halted the raids, he may resume the process in a few weeks barring city intervention. "As a third party collection agency, which is what A-1 is, we are bound by ... the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act, and we are not allowed to release information concerning accounts to anyone without their permission," operations manager Marie Kim told the Gazette, in regard to the deputies being kept in the dark about the till taps. Ace Loans owes approximately $15,000 in stormwater fees. However, it's just one of thousands of property owners that owe the city a total of about $1.6 million in unpaid debt.