Police, Pawnbrokers Join Forces
By Robin Lipscomb - The Morning News - May 22, 2005

BENTONVILLE -- When Laura Roa left town for a few days last July, someone sneaked in her bedroom and stole two gold necklaces with dangling crucifixes -- and a little, white gold ring. They were gifts from her husband, who bought them in California for about $2,500. Roa took photos of the jewelry to police. One necklace turned up in a Rogers pawn shop.

Roa is waiting for a man to be prosecuted for the theft. Meanwhile, her necklace sits in a Rogers Police Department evidence vault. She might have to pay the pawn shop $100 to get it back. After a year's wait, Roa said she doesn't mind the expense and just wants the jewelry back. Had she not acted so quickly to contact police, or had it been pawned in a neighboring town, even nearby in Lowell or Bentonville, it might have disappeared for good. Laws governing pawn transactions have been on the books in Arkansas since at least 1945.

Each police department or sheriff's office handles things differently and independently. Pawn shops must provide police detailed descriptions of goods they accept -- and information about who pawned them. Most police departments want the lists each day.

Rock-and-roll music and air conditioning rush to escape when the door swings open at Mountain Man Supplies and Pawn in Fayetteville. Inside there's a "Cheers"-like atmosphere, said manager Clint Gober. Customers come from all walks of life, "construction workers, retired folks, people in suits or overalls. About 70 to 80 percent are on a first-name basis," Gober said. Scattered throughout the store are dozens of mounts -- a massive elk hit by a semi-trailer in Alaska, a mule deer, raccoons, alligator heads and a bear. "That's part of the ambiance of the place; we're trying to create an adventure," Gober said. "And you just never know what's going to come through the door."

Pawn shop customers are "people who just like to shop for a good bargain. For instance, a 1-carat diamond ring is going to cost one-fifth to one-tenth of the price at a mall," Gober said. Pawn shops are sometimes thought of as "shady operations," but that's an old misconception, Gober insists. "It's not a good place to vend stolen merchandise." A few miles north, Stan Thomas operates Big Brother's Pawn stores in Springdale, Rogers and Bentonville. Half his business is new merchandise, the rest used and unredeemed pawned items.

Guns and jewelry are premier pawn shop wares, as they maintain their value, unlike tools and electronics that depreciate, owners said. But shelves are filled with other shopping options: movies, compact discs, air conditioners, books, tools, stereo equipment. Big Brother's musical instrument section offers a mandolin, dozens of acoustic and electric guitars and several accordions. There's a black and red O'Brien kneeboard for $99 and several go-carts and scooters. Pawn shops offer a "good opportunity to trade up" to higher quality merchandise, Thomas said. The average pawn transaction is for 30 days, and about 75 percent of pawned items in his store are redeemed during that time.

Years of diligence in reporting merchandise to police has virtually eliminated problems with stolen property, Thomas said. "Maybe at one point and time the bad rap was justified, but a "pawn shop is not the old shady, cigar-smoking operation" many people imagine.

Let's Be Friendly

Pawn shops are classified as financial institutions by the federal government and must comply with the USA Patriot Act, said Tim Collier, president of the Arkansas Pawnbrokers Association. State laws requiring shops to report all pawned merchandise virtually eliminates stolen property, Collier said. "There are many easier avenues for a thief, because every pawnbroker has to report every piece of merchandise to police, and the name, driver's license number, and so forth," Collier said. "There's still this perception, 'Oh, I had my gun stolen, I'd better go check all the pawn shops.'"

Most local pawn shop owners pride themselves on years of good relationships with police. There's one story of a Benton County store being shut down last year after an owner refused to turn over a stolen item. Police got a warrant, locked down the premises for hours and searched the store. After that, Collier said his group organized a meeting attended by nearly every law enforcement agency in Northwest Arkansas. "We wanted to find out from them what we can do, and tell them, "We're on your side. We want the bad guys caught. We don't want stolen property showing up in our stores,'" he said. The fuss began after the Arkansas Supreme Court issued an opinion in December 2003, saying when stolen property is found in a pawn shop the store can demand a civil hearing to stake its claim to the property.

Attorney general opinions about the case were released in April and September of 2004 and reiterated "seized property in which a pawn shop claims an interest cannot be returned to another party claiming an interest therein without an adjudication of the pawn shop's claim...a separate hearing is required." Terry Jones, Washington County prosecuting attorney, sought one of the opinions.

In April, a Poinsett County judge went even further, ruling police can't seize stolen property from a pawn shop before such a hearing takes place. In light of this, many Northwest Arkansas police departments are becoming more proactive. Departments in Fayetteville, Springdale and Bentonville now usually let pawn shops hold stolen items until related criminal cases are resolved. Springdale Police and the Benton County Sheriff's Office created written agreements allowing pawn shops to either keep the items, promising to produce them for court proceedings, or to surrender possession of them while maintaining ownership rights.

"I would rather they keep (the item) anyway," said Det. Richard Huddler of the Springdale department. "That way, I don't have to store it. It wasn't fair before. We'd go in, seize the item and automatically receipt it back to the owner." If the owner dropped charges, the pawn shop never got its investment back.

Even if the thief is convicted and ordered to pay restitution, that can take years and "there are several places we can drop the ball," Huddler said. Pawn shop owners universally say they prefer to keep the items on hand. "When it gets out of our possession, we get lost in the paper trail," Collier said. "Then, if charges get dropped, or there's a plea bargain, the item often falls through the cracks." Thomas, of Big Brother's, also likes holding the merchandise. Once it's gone, the dollar amounts are often so small "it's not really worth it to us to jump through hoops."

Hi-Tech Option

Local departments are also looking at joining LEADS Online, a subscription service easing and speeding the reporting. The service is already used by police departments in Little Rock, North Little Rock, Texarkana and the University of Arkansas at Little Rock, as well as sheriff's offices in Pulaski, Sevier and Miller counties.

The Jonesboro Police Department is coming on board this summer, said Cooper Smith, company spokesperson.

Pawn shops upload their logs daily to the Web-based service. Serial numbers and information about customers are automatically compared with national or regional data and any matches are flagged. The service is free to the shops.

Law enforcement agencies pay to subscribe, but it eliminates their need to enter the data and search manually. Also, in busy pawn shop seasons such as summer and before Christmas, departments might fall behind in entering data, police agreed. Stolen merchandise could then be sold and lost for good.

Springdale is considering the service, along with several other area departments, Huddler said. The ability to search regionally would cost Springdale $329 per month. The department hasn't decided whether it's cost effective, but it would allow departments throughout the region to work together. Now, "if someone steals something in Springdale and takes it to Fayetteville, I would never know.”