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Purchased a Gun from a Pawn Shop That Turned To Be Stolen

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  • txinvestigator

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    Then I suggest you do as I did - contact the State Agency that regulates them.

    DId they quote a law to you?

    I am dubious about state regulatory agencies and answers to questions they give over the phone. I work in the Private Security Industry and am amazed at how poorly the Texas Private Security Board answers questions, often giving completely wrong answers. Often you can get different answers to the same question by asking a different person.

    Experience taught me to ask to which law or rule they refer, and read it for myself. ;)
    The examples I can give are numerous.
     

    pyrat

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    Oct 31, 2010
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    It's always better to start easy and get tough if required. Contact the shop with what you have. If they refund your money case closed. If not go to your bank next and have them reverse the charge. The bank will investigate and either pay the shop out of your funds of cancel the transaction. I've had to do this a couple of times with businesses that did not provide the product I'd ordered, so it does work. If neither of these steps work, it's going to get expensive and involve lawyers. Then it comes down to which is less expensive but you lose either way. Like I said earlier, good luck.
     

    pawncop

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    TexasRedneck,

    Thank you for your post. I will contact OCCC, and I am familiar with them but was unfamiliar with any policy requiring the pawn shop to make the refund you describe.

    For all involved, I do not know all the answers, and hope that I never communicate that I do. I am certainly willing to learn from any and everyone that has good information. To do otherwise is to mark yourself a fool.

    TexasRedneck do you recall the name of the person you spoke with regarding this issue? It would be so very helpful if you know.

    Thank you for your input, I will follow up and let the board know what I discover.
     

    TexasRedneck

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    I was on the road when he returned my call, so no - I failed to get a name. Guess part of it was because I was so surprised by his very frank response to it, and his overall friendly demeanor - unusual in a state employee in his position, dealing with folks on a daily basis. In fact, he was downright pleasant!
     

    pawncop

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    TexasRedneck and cigardog99,

    Today was my first day back in the office and I did make contact with an examiner with OCCC (Office of Consumer Credit Commission). This is the regulatory agency that oversees pawnshop operations. I have met various agents and have had mulitple contacts with this agency. I could not find any reference to what TexasRedneck had advised in his earlier post. I am not an expert regarding every section of the Pawn Shop Act, but know it pretty well and could not find where the shop was liable for selling stolen goods.

    Texas Redneck is correct, it is the "stance" (I am quoting the examiner) of OCCC, that the pawn shop owes anyone that purchases a stolen item and it is subsequently seized by law enforcement, a refund. When I told him that I could not find this as a policy nor could I find it in the PawnShop Act, he advised that it not in the act but it is the "stance" of OCCC that the pawn shop did not have the right to sell stolen property, even if they did not know the item was stolen. Turns out it is in the Penal Code.

    I must admit this is brand new to me, and quite honestly I have had only one case where this happened years ago and the shop did make good, but I presumed it was just good business practice on their part.

    cigardog99 - please feel free to e-mail or PM me and I will share the name of the examiner with you should you have any difficulty with the shop in Houston.
     

    TexasRedneck

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    Thanks, Pawncop. Like I said, I was pretty surprised by the very quick, no-nonsense way in which they responded. They usually talk like a coupla lawyers on crack (bureaucrats in general, I mean), so it was pretty neat getting someone on the phone that was so up-front.
     

    pawncop

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    So many times, at least in my experience, the person who pawned or sold the gun to the pawn shop is not the culprit, but the person who ended up with the gun having bought it from a friend or used at a gun show.

    Number of cases I have had that ended up this way. If it is fairly recent then we start backtracking to see if we can determine who actually stole the gun.

    A few months back I help the local sheriff's office clear several burglaries and thefts just as I described. An innocent citizen pawned a shotgun, reported by the SO. I located it, and they tracked it back to a suspect, (who left for Mexico) and recovered a boatload of property including a 50 inch TV from one of our burglaries.

    A good day all around.
     
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