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."
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."