pawn shop question

[Alpo]

If you take something to the pawn shop to borrow money on it, does the pawn broker take down your name and address?

[Doc Shapiro]

Here in CA, they are required to do so by regulation.

 

[Red Gauntlet , SASS 60619]

That would seem to be basic practice. And the police do review the pawn shop records regularly for obvious reasons. 

 

If you borrow money from a bank, do they take down your name and address?

[Alpo]

I knew they had to do it with guns, and jewelry, but I wasn't sure about other things - tools, musical instruments, like that.

 

I'm watching NCIS - that show that always gets EVERYTHING right. They are at the pawn shop tracking down the murder weapon. The guy that Gibbs was named after had hocked his Medal of Honor. Gibbs wants to ask him about this, so when they get back to the Navy Yard he tells McGee to find the address of Leroy Jethro Cooper. And I said to the television, "why didn't you just ask the lady at the pawn shop?"

[Marshal Mo Hare, SASS #45984]

3 hours ago, Alpo said:

I knew they had to do it with guns, and jewelry, but I wasn't sure about other things - tools, musical instruments, like that.

 

I'm watching NCIS - that show that always gets EVERYTHING right. They are at the pawn shop tracking down the murder weapon. The guy that Gibbs was named after had hocked his Medal of Honor. Gibbs wants to ask him about this, so when they get back to the Navy Yard he tells McGee to find the address of Leroy Jethro Cooper. And I said to the television, "why didn't you just ask the lady at the pawn shop?"

Leroy Cooper was homeless. Any address given would have been questionable.

[Major Crimes]

No wait.................. OH, PAWN shop

 

Give me a break it was an Alpo question, you can never assume.

[Rye Miles #13621]

Yes!

[Smoky Pistols]

From the experience of my younger, poorer, less than good judgment days, anytime you pawn something they take your personal information.  Normal just DL number, address, maybe even a copy of your DL.  I was always told that it could be used if the item turned out to be stolen or acquired through nefarious means. 

[Badlands Bob #61228]

The rules for pawnshops and how well they are monitored is different for every police jurisdiction.  My agency was very proactive and had two detectives assigned to work pawnshops.  They monitored about 40 pawnshops/jewelry stores in the county.  Every pawn shop had to run our software which we could search and monitor in real time.  Every person pawning had to provide a government I.D., have their fingerprint scanned and got their picture taken.  We ran an NCIC/GCIC search of everything pawned weekly.   All of the detectives had access to the pawnshop database.  If Alpo was selling a lot of items, he would show up on the frequent flyer list and burglary detectives would match his pawned items against theft/burglary reports.  We would also send a list of suspicious pawn transactions to Alpo's home jurisdiction if he didn't live locally.  We also had the ability to enter things to look for into the system so if Alpo brought in a stolen VCR with serial number ABC123, we would get an immediate hit and could dispatch an officer to get him.

[Cyrus Cassidy #45437]

Remember, the law in every state, county, and municipality is different.  That said, Colorado's state law requires each person pawning an item to fill out a form that includes all of their personally identifiable information, as well as a statement indicating the item is actually theirs and it was not "found" or stolen.  If they are later found to have lied on that form, it is a FELONY crime entitled, "False Information to a Pawn Broker."  Depending on the value of the item, stealing it may only be a misdemeanor, but lying about it to a pawn shop is a felony.

 

Funny enough, to obtain a pawn license (i.e. to be the business owner), the licensee has to waive their business' 4th Amendment rights preventing warrantless search and seizure.  If they don't waive that right, they do not get a pawn license.  So EVERY pawn transaction -- pawning, selling, or buying -- goes into a database that can be searched by the police at any time, without a warrant and without probable cause.  I've uncovered more than one burglary ring by looking in that database, as well as a guy who habitually rented household items from a rent-to-own business, pawned them, and reported them stolen.  I also got a lady's genuine Rolex watch back for her (if you're a pawn owner and someone sells you a $40,000 Rolex for $1800, you should be suspicious). 

[J. Mark Flint #31954 LIFE]

One of my grandfathers worked in a Pawn shop for quite a while and my father worked in one the last 2-3 years of his life.  Pawn shops will keep records on pawned items.  They would in the past, also buy items outright and those were often left "off the books" especially if the price was "too good"  I'd like to believe the owners were the ones that were responsible for the under the table deals, but I knew my grandfather well enough to suspect otherwise.