ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — The struggling economy in the United States is causing a rise in car repossessions.

Barron's reported repossessions of vehicles have even doubled among so called "prime" borrowers, or people with good credit scores.

According to Experian, Florida had the fifth-highest repossession rate in the country last year.

Although statistics for this year aren't available yet, Bill Ingram sees the problems every day.

“Most of the time, they’re delinquent on their payments,” Ingram, the owner of Florida Security and Recovery, said.

His repossession company is in the business of recovering cars from people who owe money to their lenders.

During the pandemic, times for him were tough. He lost staff and many lenders weren’t seeking cars because they were delaying debt payments.

But now, in 2022, that’s changed in a drastic way.

So much so that for a business that’s mainly handled overnight, he’s heading out in the middle of the day to find a car that’s getting repossessed.

“With the economy and everything else, everyone is struggling so we just pick ‘em up,” Ingram said.

And picking them up is something he’s doing more and more these days. According to Ingram, on a busy day they used to repo about 10-12 cars. Now, that’s his average.

“It just shows what’s going on with our economy,” said Ingram.

It’s a stressful job at times because the last thing people want is to have their car towed away.

But when the bill is long overdue, the last resort for the bank is bringing Ingram into the mix.

“When the economy is bad, that’s when the repossessions are doing the best,” Ingram said. “It’s kind of a shame.”

An understandable yet sad reality right now.

On this day, Ingram is looking for a car that he says is most likely at a workplace.

He says getting cars at work generally cause the least amount of blowback from people who are behind payments, and his instincts are sharp after decades in the business.

“Looks like we’re pulling up on our car right here,” he said, pointing to a vehicle in a parking lot after searching the area.

Because the lean holder has sent multiple warnings before calling Ingram, his role is to simply take the car back to his lot and let police know that the car hasn’t been stolen but repossessed.

He says they aren’t always this smooth of an experience but after hooking up the car to his tow truck, he heads back to his lot to inventory the latest pick up and take pictures of the ins and outs of the car.

“We try to get a little picture of everything,” Ingram said.

Whether in the middle of the night or in broad daylight, Ingram says with the current state of the economy, his work won’t be slowing down anytime soon.