Pawn Shops Allow Customers to Sell Gold, Safeguards Help Protect Against Stolen Property
Articles June 10th, 2009
Many pawn shops, including a Seattle pawn shop, have gotten a bad reputation due in part to poor public relations and the way they are portrayed on television: as places where burglars take their stolen loot in order to quickly receive cash and rid themselves of the hot merchandise.
In today’s world, the pawn shops have safeguards in place in order to protect themselves and the public from stolen merchandise. When a customer who brings in a piece of valuable jewelry or large screen television, the owner of the pawn shop or person behind the counter makes sure to request a photo ID and in some states a thumb print is required. This information is then forwarded to the local law enforcement agency to be monitored for stolen items.
According to the National Pawnbrokers Association, less than .05% of all items taken to a pawn shop are stolen items. With the new safeguards in place, many criminals know better than to bring their “hot” valuables to a local pawn shop. Many police and detectives frequently stop by pawn shops with a stolen goods list to see if anything matches if the pawn shop owner does not inform them of the information or if it is not a law in their state. If the criminals are stupid enough to bring in and try to pawn a stolen item, the safeguards will allow for a police officer to apprehend them; however this leaves the pawn shop owner out of the money they gave the person for the item, if it’s gotten that far.
Numerous people use pawn shops to sell Gold jewelry, either antique, heirloom jewelry handed down from generations of family members or perhaps wedding rings from a previous marriage. However, there are also “big ticket” items such as flat screen TVs, expensive hand held construction equipment like expensive drills and saws. Additionally, there are many people who turn in their hobby equipment or sporting goods for instance high-powered rifles, crossbows and smaller fire arms for hunting. Large pieces of home exercise equipment are also very popular at pawn shops.
Pawn shop owners are typically happy to work with local law enforcement officials to help remove criminals from the streets.
July 14th, 2009 at 2:01 am
[...] more: Pawn Shops Allow Customers to Sell Gold, Safeguards Help Protect Against Stolen Property Share and Enjoy: These icons link to social bookmarking sites where readers can share and [...]
July 14th, 2009 at 3:29 am
[...] post: Pawn Shops Allow Customers to Sell Gold, Safeguards Help Protect Against Stolen Property Tags: articles, gave-the-person, law-enforcement, leaves-the-pawn, money, person, [...]
July 14th, 2009 at 3:33 am
[...] the original post: Pawn Shops Allow Customers to Sell Gold, Safeguards Help Protect Against Stolen Property Share and Enjoy: These icons link to social bookmarking sites where readers can share and [...]
July 14th, 2009 at 10:06 am
[...] posted here: Pawn Shops Allow Customers to Sell Gold, Safeguards Help Protect Against Stolen Property Tags: articles, criminals, leaves-the-pawn, money, national, pawn, perhaps-wedding, person, [...]