Ken Cage is racing through a private aviation terminal near Orlando, Fla., when his BlackBerry buzzes with bad news. The plane he is about to repossess is scheduled to take off for Mexico in three minutes.

Even worse, the Cessna’s owner and pilot is on his way back from lunch — and he is rumored to be 6 feet 6 inches tall.

“I’d rather not stick around to find out,” Cage says.

Cage, 44, stands guard by the door as a partner, Randy Craft, walks onto the tarmac and approaches a shiny white turboprop. Craft quickly picks the lock on the door and ushers in the repo team’s pilot, Dave Larson. The plane’s propellers roar to life, and after clearance from the control tower, the $350,000 ride lifts off the runway and into the sky.

Cage and Craft climb back into their Ford pickup and tear out of the parking lot, just as the plane’s owner pulls in.

“He’s a minute late,” says Cage, peering out the window. “Lucky for us.” Cage isn’t your typical repo man. Rather than snatch cars from an overextended middle class, he takes back yachts, planes and other toys from the overleveraged rich.

Business is thriving, even as the economy begins to improve. His company, International Recovery Group, repossessed more than 700 boats, planes, helicopters and other property last year with a total value of more than $100 million. Business, he says, is up sixfold from 2007.

He has reclaimed everything from $18 million Gulfstream jets and Bell helicopters to 110-foot Broward yachts, $500,000 recreational vehicles and even a racehorse. Before the financial crisis, most of the luxury items he pulled in were valued at $30,000 to $50,000. Today, they are valued at $200,000 to $300,000 — meaning defaults are hitting people at a much higher income level.

The folly of the wealthy has been good news for an elite cadre of repo men. Nick Popovich, the self-proclaimed “Learjet repo man” and head of Sage-Popovich in Indiana, and Michigan boat specialists like Harrison Marine report brisk business. Reality TV producers have been knocking on their doors. Last year, Cage says, International Recovery’s revenue soared to the eight figures, up from just a few hundred thousand when he and two partners bought the company in 2005.

Banks hire Cage to retrieve their collateral after a borrower has defaulted. Once he grabs the property, he cleans it up or makes needed repairs and sells it to a new buyer. He then gives the proceeds, minus his fees and expenses, back to the bank. While the standard commission for most repossessions is from 6% to 10% of the resale price, Cage has lowered his fee to as little as 2% as a way to beat back growing competition.

“They’re very quick in their response time,” says Steve De Amico, vice president in charge of lending at Allied First Bank in Illinois. “It’s also helpful to have one company that can get the property, restore it and sell it for us.”

Cage can’t name names. But he estimates that 70% of his targets made and lost their money in real estate — as developers, agents or contractors. Most of his jobs are in Florida, Arizona, California, Nevada and other Sun Belt states, where real estate has been hit hardest.

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