Nissim Mizrahi, a licensed, private “repo man” who does jobs for the court system’s Department of Debt Collection (Hotza’a L’foal), knocks on the door of an apartment in Tel Aviv’s low-rent Tel Kabir neighborhood. The occupant owes somebody NIS 78,000. No answer. Mizrahi checks the electricity box for a house key – empty. He peers through the keyhole and sees no movement inside. He tries the front door, which bolts on three sides – it doesn’t open. He takes out a plastic card, slides it along the sides of the door, and feels that it isn’t bolted. Jimmying the lock and doorknob a little harder this time, he opens the door and walks into the apartment.
The living room is furnished in dark wood and leather, and a child’s tricycle is sitting on the floor. It’s a little before noon. Within a couple of minutes, Mizrahi and his employee, Yariv Ben Abu, are carrying out two portable televisions and a VCR, heading down the stairs to put the stuff in their van. Later, they’ll take the day’s haul to the Debt Collection Department’s regional warehouse.
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