How Pawn Shops Prevent People from Selling Stolen Items

It’s been a long standing stigma that pawn shops are nothing more than a hot bed for criminals to take their stolen merchandise and cash in on their crimes without much pushback. Fortunately, this stigma is being combatted, one case of cooperation with law enforcement at a time.

Pawn shops are small businesses, like other small businesses, they are in business for a profit. Also, like other businesses, they have a set of laws and regulations that apply to their type of business. The laws do vary from state to state in regards to how to handle suspected stolen merchandise. For example, in some states, pawn shops are not required to report to local law enforcement officials at all when suspected stolen merchandise is brought in. On the other end of the spectrum, in Ohio, pawn shops are required to report daily to local law enforcement officers on items taken in, either for a loan or purchased outright. There are other factors that may cause pawn shops to operate and report different ways, even in the same jurisdiction.

The software used to track intake merchandise, and how the pawn shops are directed to track stolen merchandise, can affect how the pawn shop will handle merchandise they believe could be stolen.

How Pawn Shops Identify Stolen Items

Police Reports

The most common way that shops check items to see if they’re stolen, is by checking to see if the serial number on the item matches that of an item recently reported stolen to the police. Often times, local law enforcement will send out reports, via fax and/or email, to local pawn shops in Apache Junction requesting that they keep an eye out for certain items that have been reported stolen.

If an item does come in that has been identified as stolen, pawn shops may choose to take it in anyways and inform the police immediately. This way, the item is returned more quickly to its owner, and a person pawning needs to provide identification, which can be used down the road to prosecute the person pawning the stolen merchandise.

Tampering

If the serial number has obviously been recently removed or filed off an item, that could be a clear sign that the item is not legally theirs. Missing identifying information is not a normal occurrence, so when a pawn shop work does see that, it is a red flag.

Suspect Behavior

When someone brings an item in, and they do not have the ability to easily explain where they got the item, and cannot answer simple questions about it, the item may not be theirs. This is truer when pawning high priced jewelry where the details of the diamond may come into account. If a young man, for example, comes in with a piece of high priced, lady’s jewelry, there may be more probing questions asked to make sure the jewelry is his to pawn. There are plenty of reasons for a young man to have such an item, but it is better for the purchaser to be more inquisitive and err on the side of caution.

If the seller appears to get nervous or stressed by the questions being asked, the purchaser may become more suspect that the item is not theirs and can choose to refuse the transaction altogether.