It was just another busy day in San Antonio for Darren Abate. He was working hard and obsessing over the movie he is filming in his hometown about a kid who escapes to college from a rough, drug-ridden neighbourhood, only to come back home and suffer a fall from grace.

The film is Abate's summer baby, and it keeps him racing around from place to place. But the part-time feature filmmaker and full-time freelance photographer did find a free moment the other day to pop by his post office box and pick up the mail.

There were several envelopes waiting inside. One stood out from the rest. It looked important, perhaps even a little threatening. Was a collection agency coming after Abate for some long forgotten debt? What if an unsatisfied client or supposedly injured party was suing him for some perceived wrong? He really had no clue why something called Dewey Ranch Hockey, LLC, was sending him a letter.

Abate did know something about hockey. During Texas winters he works as the team photographer for the San Antonio Rampage, the AHL club affiliated with the Phoenix Coyotes.

But the name Dewey Ranch Hockey was a mystery.

"The envelope looked very official," Abate said yesterday. "And I was like, 'I am sure I don't owe them money. And I don't know anybody named Dewey Ranch that owes me money.'"

To end the suspense, he opened the envelope. Inside were some official looking legal papers essentially saying the Phoenix Coyotes were for sale in a United States bankruptcy court, and if Jerry Reinsdorf, one of the bidders for the team, was successful, Abate was entitled to collect US$48.66 as a secured creditor.

"I had been so busy with my other projects that it was the first time I realized that the team was in bankruptcy proceedings," Abate says. "I had heard they might move, but ... "

He had never heard of Reinsdorf, the Chicago sports magnate and sole registered bidder for a bankruptcy court auction scheduled on Aug. 5. (The Ice Edge Group, with its plan playing a handful of games in Saskatoon or Halifax, has yet to submit a formal offer).

Confused by the correspondence, Abate checked his records and discovered a long forgotten invoice for a series of prints he did for the Rampage in January 2008. They were presented to the team's former AHL farmhand, Bryan Helmer, in honour of his 1,000th minor-league game. And the outstanding invoice was for US$46.88.

"Forty-eight bucks is 48 bucks," Abate says. "But it is only 48 bucks, and so my reaction after opening the letter was, 'Oh, that's interesting, now put it down and go and make a sandwich.'"

Abate's claim is among 118 "team liabilities" acknowledged in Reinsdorf's US$148-million purchase offer for the Coyotes. The others include US$100 owed to the Arizona Softball Association, a US$9,364 hotel tab in Denver and US$5.76 due The Antigua Group, makers of PGA Tour approved golf apparel.

(Missing from the list was Wayne Gretzky and the US$8-million annual salary Jerry Moyes, the soon-to-be ex-Coyotes owner, was paying him to coach).

Abate says he would be sad to see this fellow Reinsdorf lose and the NHL leave Arizona for Hamilton with Canadian billionaire Jim Balsillie.

The BlackBerry guru will be in Chicago today, fielding questions from the NHL Executive Committee about his US$212.5-million offer for the Coyotes, as will the Ice Edge Group and their front man, Daryl Jones.

Abate will be in San Antonio rushing about like he always does. The freelance life is a hustle, and one of the benefits of working for an AHL team was that the Rampage always treated him right.

"I probably have one of the better gigs in the AHL," the photographer said. "The pay for minor-league sports photographers is not great, if they get paid at all.

"A lot of the time AHL photographers will be volunteers, basically just fans that want to shoot for the team and do it for free."

joconnor@nationalpost.com