I’ve made a few posts this week about the reputation of pawn shops and how it seems to be improving. Today I have a few articles for you about how no matter strictly a pawn shop follows the law, sometimes the public perception is that the pawn shop is part of the theft of their belongings.
In this article a Bayonne New Jersey woman had her iPad stolen which was later found in a pawn shop. The shop follows all the correct procedures when it comes to executing a pawn including reporting the item to the police. Her complaint is that she “had” to buy back her item from the shop. Well actually, she didn’t. All she had to do was follow the legal process and, according to the officer handling the case, she would have had her iPad back within a few days. Because she didn’t have control of her emotions, she had to get it back right away. And yet she is upset with the pawn shop because they didn’t just hand it over to her. I guess the idea due process escapes her.
Another similar instance takes place in Cincinnati OH. Again someone finds their stolen item, this time a hedge trimmer, is found in a local Cash America pawn shop. The items owner didn’t want to wait for the legal process to run it’s course, reimbursed the shop for their loss and now blames the shop.
We’ve all seen this many times. The public treas pawn shops as part of the theft ring. They fail to see that the shop has put money out and by reporting to the police, helped them locate their items. If the thief sold their item on craigslist or to a friend, they most likely would have never seen their property again.
I’ve seen some instances where the victim of a theft is grateful to the pawn shop for helping to recover their property and is happy to reimburse them for their loss. Unfortunately that seems to be pretty rare.
UPDATE: The thief in the New Jersey case was arrested.
Pawn shops are highly regulated by the department of commerce. Since we are a Legitimate business, in the state of Ohio, we have to hold items we purchase for 15 days. Within that time period, we ARE required to send all information of pawns and purchases to the Chief of Police. We have this process so we can make sure all this items were not stolen. If an item comes back stolen, we are required to put a 30 day hold on the item. The LAW requires the “victim” to refund the pawn shop for the item that they bought legally. While, it seems harsh to the victim to pay to receive their stolen item back, the Pawn shop did not buy the item knowingly it was stolen. Speaking from experience, Our shop does NOT want that element nor the stigma that we are a dirty business. If the thief is caught, the victim can make the offender as part of their sentence reimburse them the payment they made to pawn shop.