A public service annoumcement from your favorite pawncop

[pawncop]

A small rant, a bit of education, and an opportunity to ward off really dumb behavior.

I am presently working at least four (4) cases where stolen property has been pawned by a person pawning for someone else.

I want to state up front my issue is not with pawning property. For a number of citizens the monetary assistance (albeit an expensive form of assistance) they receive is essential as they do not have access to traditional forms of banking and such. They do what they can with what they have and I do not have a problem with it.

BUT, ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls of all ages, pawning property that is not yours is NOT a good idea unless you know the person really, really, really well, and then it is still a bad idea.

The common denominator in these cases is both folks go to the pawn shop and the person who wants to pawn tells the other person, sometimes at the last minute, "I don't have my ID, can you do this for me?"

The correct answer is NO! Not only NO but ..... well you get the idea.

In the majority of the cases the person doing the pawning has been cleared, (in one case we are still wondering if it a conspiracy case - you really do not want to be in this position.)

The problem for the person doing the pawning, even if they are cleared, they are now on my radar. As a general rule, you do not want to be on any police radar (pun intended) for any reason. Sometimes it cannot be helped, but this is totally avoidable.

Now I realize I am probably peaching to the choir, but take this lesson and preach it to your kids, especially those going off to college, maybe hanging with others that might want to take advantage of your child's kind spirit.

Thanks for listening and hopefully I can prevent someone from trying to be nice and and getting a call from one of my counterparts needing to "visit about the XXXX you pawned."

 

[308nato]

Very good advice thank you. Will pass it along

 

[shortround]

It is theft, plain & simple.

"Thou Shalt Not Steal."

The removal of Christian Belief shall be the downfall of this great Republic.

 

[matefrio]

Instincts of good guys and gals is to help out and be nice to others. Bad guys are out there taking advantage of that.

A bit of general advice like this is a great mental check. Do I really want to pawn something for my brother in law after my sister insists she just needs some diapers?

Do I really want to look down at my watch and let my guard down when this rough looking street punk asked the time in a dark parking lot?

Thanks pawncop.

 

[mroper]

Thanks for the great advice.

 

[Mic]

So...silly question maybe. But what the heck is a pawncop. Are you part of a PD, but assigned specifically to pawn-related stuff?

Side note: if, for whatever reason, you don't care to elaborate, I won't be offended. Just curious.

 

[Long_Shot]

Good advice coming from the right source! Appreciate the info sir, that hasn't happened to me yet but its good to know in case it does happen. atriot:

 

[wakal]

Nice to see that some jurisdictions actually perform pawn investigations. My partner had some of his (plumbing) equipment lifted out of his apprentice's truck. Eyewitness noted the description and the tags. The pawn shop owner who turned the stolen goods a few days later recognised several of the tools as ones he had sold my partner (and found a match ID tag with his name on it in one of the bags; that made it easier), and passed along the ID's of the punks (which matched the eyewitness's description) and their various flophouse contact information.

My partner wandered all that down to the local doughtnut repository and handed it all over to be appended (he hoped) to the theft report filed (by this time) the week before...and found out that (first) the file had not been entered in the database yet which meant (second) no case officer had been assigned and (third) no one gave a rat's ass anyway.

When asked how he had "discovered" all this data (neated typed up with contact information for each individual that had provided information), my partner told doughnut nosher "...well, back when you guys did such things, it was called "detective work..."

Ah, fun times.

The boys were not even contacted (as my friend's spies in the department later told him) since there was no interest in property crime without any public outcry to go with it. That department is more interested in speeding tickets (mmm...sweet sweet cash) and using any excuse to toss vehicles to look for drugs (mmm...sweet sweet government cash)...

Thanks for the heads up...trust no one



Alex

 

[D Crockett]

I go to pawn shops to look for guns and not long ago a guy asked me if I would pawn a big screen tv for him and gave the excuse of I forgot my ID well I tell him )&^() no and to get lost.I go inside and do what I have to do and he is still trying to get someone to do it when I come out D Crockett

 

[recoveringyankee]

Pawncop your advice should be a no brainer. I do have one question for the group though. I have not done business with a pawn shop, I have been lucky in that I have never had to. I can't think of a legitimate need for a person to pawn an item for another party, is there any?