Troy asked whose name was on the registration of the RV. Both of theirs. Which is exactly why the release form worked.
The release form said they picked up the vehicle in working order, which they did. It also acknowledged the unpaid repair balance, which is all a licensed mechanic needs to file a repairmans lien against a vehicle. I rebuilt a shot transmission in a thirty-eight-foot Winnebago in four days, sleeping at the shop, and they handed me two hundred dollars and told me to take it or leave it. So I filed the lien, lawfully, the afternoon they drove off toward the canyon.
A lien flags the registration. When a park ranger at the Grand Canyon ran their plate at five in the morning, as rangers do in those lots, it came back flagged with an unsatisfied repair lien, and that is why a highway patrolman asked them to step out.
Troy kicked my tire and said it felt sluggish and paid me fifty dollars short of five thousand three hundred. The lien did not feel sluggish at all.
You cannot legally operate or sell a vehicle with an unsatisfied repairmans lien on it. There was exactly one way to clear the flag and get back on the road. Pay the mechanic. Troy paid the five thousand three hundred twelve dollars from a parking lot at the Grand Canyon, and I released the lien, and they finished their trip.
And Lily came to me for Labor Day, because a mother cannot actually trade a nine-year-olds holiday to dodge a transmission bill. That is not how custody works, whatever Shannon leaned out the window to say.
I own a little diesel shop right off I-40 in Flagstaff. I rebuilt their engine right, and I test-drove it fifty miles, and it was perfect, and they tried to pay me in insults and fifty-dollar bills. They paid me in full in the end, because the law that protects a mechanic does not care how much a timeshare salesman kicks a tire. I had my daughter for Labor Day. We watched the fireworks. The RV, last I heard, runs great.