In lieu of self help repossession, a secured creditor may seek a post judgment (and sometimes also a pre-judgment) writ from a court instructing a sheriff to seize property that is collateral for a debt. If such a writ is duly issued, a sheriff would then be said to have "legal papers."  Suppose that Stone Machinery had undertaken such a process and the sheriff had "legal papers."   Would there have been any greater or lesser potential for violence?  If not, why does it matter, in determining whether there is a breach of the peace, whether the sheriff has "legal papers"?

      Frequently one sees truth that is stranger than fiction.  But for some good fiction on the subject, see Chapter XIII of Tom Wolfe's novel A Man in Full (Farrar, Straus and Giroux 1998).  There, legal counsel for PlannersBanc, accompanied by two executives of the bank, three officers from the county sheriff's department, and two licensed pilots and an airplane mechanic, served a superior court "order for the arrest and removal" of a Gulfstream Five private jet upon financially troubled real estate tycoon Charlie Crocker as Charlie stepped from the plane onto the tarmac.  Charlie asked to see the order and then ripped it to pieces and threw it at the feet of the lawyer.  The lawyer responded:   "Whatever you choose to do with the order in its printed form doesn't alter a thing, Mr. Croker.  The order has been executed, and the Croker Global Corporation is no loner the owner of this aircraft.  It is now the property of PlannersBanc.   These gentlemen here" - he gestured toward the three policemen - "and myself are here solely to carry out the dictates of the court."  To discover Charlie's effective although expensive resistance, read the book, or at least read Chapter XIII.