When the officer to whom the writ of return is committed cannot find the goods replevied, so as to deliver them to the defendant, he or she shall make return of that fact upon such writ, and the defendant shall thereupon be entitled to a writ of reprisal, to be awarded and issued upon his or her motion by the court in which the judgment was rendered, to take the goods and chattels of the plaintiff, to be held and disposed of as on a writ of execution.
12 V.S.A. § 5337