Two repo men are going to war with electric scooter companies.

John Heinkel and Dan Borelli operate Scoot Scoop in San Diego. They specialize in removing electric scooters that have been left carelessly around the city, potentially endangering pedestrians.

Jonathan Freeman of Safe Walkways in San Diego says, “They’re having an impact in terms of injuries to the people who use them. They’re having an impact on the disabled in particular because they’re not complying with the American Disabilities Act and the pernicious thing is that they’re having an impact on the quality of life of people who used to enjoy walking down to the beach and walking on the boardwalk, walking on the Martin Luther King promenade, walking along the bay front here.”

Overall, Freeman says people are having to change the behaviors in their lifestyles because it’s no longer safe for them to walk in the city.

Heinkel says they’ve impounded 14,000 scooters, but operators such as Bird and Lime have hit back with a lawsuit.

Bird recently released a statement saying, “We are seeking an immediate end to their scheme as the company is robbing people of the environmentally friendly scooter options they’ve come to rely upon.”

Lime also released a statement saying, “Their attempts to deputize themselves as an extension of the city is not only unlawful, but it is nothing short of a property theft scheme to generate income.”

However, Scoot Scoop doesn’t seem to mind as they feel they have the backing of the local public.

“The community loves us. The city workers downtown will shout our name as we’re driving by. The San Diego PD will yell out ‘Scoot Scoop!” to all of us as we drive by. We have people running up and congratulating us. We have people giving us Starbucks coffee cards,” said Heinkel.

Borelli added, “This guy got a kiss the other day. He had a lady come up and give him a kiss on the forehead and say thank you for his service.”

But despite the dispute, Heinkel and Borelli are not looking for a fight; they say they just want people to safely enjoy the scooters.

“We don’t want to turn it into a war, we want to see co-existence. We want to see the scooter survive, we want to see people out there enjoying the scooters,” said Borelli. “We want to see them riding them to and from work reducing the amount of cars on the road, but until these companies can work with a company such as ourselves or find a way to implement procedures to keep their product clean and neat and orderly, it’s going to remain the same.”