Repo Men Go Commando to Seize Cars : Disputes: Squad chops through a warehouse roof and removes seven Mitsubishis despite the presence of guards. ‘It’s a civil problem,’ a sheriff’s official says.

Crawling across the rooftop to hide from guards on the ground below, the 12 men paused in the darkness above Norwalk and listened for distant rumbling.

They waited silently for noisy trucks to pass by on the nearby Golden State Freeway and muffle the sound of the ax they had brought to chop through the top of the warehouse next to Rosecrans Avenue.

When the opening was punched through, the men tossed a 20-foot rope into the hole. Then, stuffing flashlights into their waistbands and pockets, they rappelled into the darkness of the huge garage below, landing between two parked cars.

All that was missing the other night from the unusual scene being played out at the Norwalk Auto Auction were movie cameras and Sylvester Stallone or Arnold Schwarzenegger. Or maybe Emilio Estevez and Harry Dean Stanton, stars of “Repo Man.”

A repossession crew had dropped in to retrieve nine cars caught in a legal dispute between a defunct car dealer, a finance company and a Japanese auto maker. Working silently in the darkness, the men would sneak the cars out of the locked warehouse beneath the noses of the guards.

The weekend caper left the repo men bragging, sheriff’s deputies smiling and the Mitsubishi USA company fuming.

Stallone or Schwarzenegger couldn’t have pulled it off better, said repo man Mark Himmer, 21. A veteran of three years of car-snatching, he called The Times to take credit for personally chopping the hole.

Even William Lewis seemed impressed. He’s the president of the auto auction, where the rappelling rope was still dangling Monday when his workers discovered the cars missing.

“I think the guys who did this watched the movie ‘The Dirty Dozen’ too many times,” Lewis said. “They must have had a ball coming inside.”

Ironically, Lewis’ company--which has been in Norwalk for 14 years--sells repossessed cars to dealers. But he said none of the hundreds of cars that pass through his company monthly have ever been re -repossessed.

The nine Mitsubishi cars had been stored as a favor to a finance company with which he frequently does business, Lewis said. That company has been in a dispute with the former owner of a car dealership over the vehicles, he said. For that reason, his workers had “disabled” them to prevent them from being drivable.

“Somehow they got the cars out without my guards seeing them,” Lewis said, speculating that the vehicles were towed away. “The guard company is on the hot seat now.”

If operators of the private security company were squirming, officials of Mitsubishi Motor Sales of America in Cypress were fuming.

“There was a theft of our vehicles. We’re letting the authorities take a look at it,” said Kim Custer, a Mitsubishi spokesman.

But there was a bemused look on the faces of Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputies from the Norwalk station when they visited the auto auction to take a report.

“The repossessers may have been out of line, but it’s a civil problem,” explained Sgt. Matthew McDannel. “It’s a big repossession dispute with the Mitsubishi Corp.”

Lewis said he is not interested in filing criminal charges against the intruders. But he said the incident isn’t over yet.

“They only got seven cars,” he said with a grin. “They missed two.”

Lewis said he has big plans for the two autos left behind.

“I’m going to put ‘em in my showroom window with big ribbons attached. Let’s see ‘em get them .”