My ex was a private investigator, but when he was between cases he would do a little repo work on the side. I went with him twice. First time we got shot at and had to do a high speed getaway. Second time he picked up a car from a guy whose whole family was on the porch sobbing as we took the car away. I NEVER went with him again. I’m too soft-hearted for that type of work.
If repo men were taking cars from Oprah Winfrey or Bill Gates, they would probably be helped by a crowd on their way to the car.
I suspect that more often than not, the one behind on the payments was sold a car they couldn't afford, and didn't have the sense to walk away from.
A former neighbor told me that a mutual friend’s dad, a repo man, once came in and asked a couple of his son’s high school friends “Who wants to make $20?” He just needed someone to carry the other end of a couch when they repo-ed it. They got to the house, and it was a local hot-head and his family was “just sitting down to dinner on the couch,” as he described it. Had to laugh. He told the guy “Never again.” I guess the same repo guy showed up drunk to repo something, and the people that had their stuff repo-ed called the cops. They stopped him on the road, and off to jail he went.