Is Lizard Lick Towing Still in Business? Where Ronnie and Amy Shirley Are Now

If you were an avid cable TV viewer in the early 2010s, there's a good chance Lizard Lick Towing was part of your weekly rotation. The truTV series originally ran for four seasons and 91 episodes, from 2011 to 2014, following the vehicle repossession operations of Lizard Lick Towing & Recovery near Wendell, North Carolina.

The show centered on husband-and-wife team Ronnie and Amy Shirley, who founded the business in 1998 with a single truck before growing it into a 15-person operation with a fleet of 20 trucks over the following decade. On camera, Ronnie and his crew tracked down and repossessed vehicles from reluctant owners, while Amy managed the fallout back at headquarters.

More than a decade after the cameras stopped rolling, Ronnie and Amy are still together and still running the business.

The couple remains active on social media, with over one million TikTok followers and nearly 171,000 Facebook likes, as of a 2023 report.

According to MEAWW, Amy is a published author, having written a cookbook, Gluten-Free in Lizard Lick. Ronnie is also an ordained minister who has worked with troubled teenagers in his local community.

Alongside the Shirleys, the show featured a memorable supporting cast.

Bobby Brantley, Ronnie's best friend, originally came on board after Ronnie repossessed his truck. He went on to become the show's unpredictable co-lead. After his exit from the show, the TV personality appeared on 2015’s The Lonesome Curse.

Elaine McGilveary, famously known as Big Juicy, handled the front office and was a fan favorite. She is committed to raising her three children.

Krazy Dave Eckler, who rounded out the core crew, has continued to rise in the spotlight. He is pursuing his passion for music and has worked on the musical endeavor called the “Rocky Cross Project.”

On Feb. 17, 2022, Ronnie's son, Harley Alexander "Alex" Shirley, 21, was fatally shot in Josephine Road in Johnston County, North Carolina, after attending a memorial balloon release for a friend who had died in a car crash, according to The Associated Press.

A friend sitting next to him, Sophie Hagy, was also shot and left permanently paralyzed from the waist down, WRAL News reported.

Nathan Christopher Jackson, who was 16 at the time of the shooting, was convicted of first-degree murder, attempted murder and discharging a firearm into a vehicle inflicting serious injury. He was sentenced to life in prison, with parole possible after 40 years, the maximum allowed under North Carolina law for a juvenile offender. A second shooter, Joshua Christopher Stewart, was sentenced in July 2025.

Speaking outside the courthouse after the sentencing, Ronnie told reporters: "If I leave this courthouse and this trial with anything else, I want people to know that you have to learn to forgive no matter what, and you have to learn to love no matter how hard."

A fifth suspect in the case, Ferrell Nicolas Jackson, was identified by the Johnston County Sheriff's Office and, according to WRAL News, arrested as recently as June 2025.

Despite the tragedy, the Shirleys continue to run their business and maintain an active following long after the truTV era ended.