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Selling a system: Police say new Internet service may reduce stolen items being pawned
By Mike Dougherty
Pawn shops accommodate people who need cash. Often that means quick cash - for honest people in a temporary financial bind, drug users needing a fix of their habits or thieves trying to get rid of hot merchandise.
Benton police detectives say the Christmas holidays often result in more thefts and burglaries. But they say they are working with pawn shop owners to try to cut back on the pawning of stolen goods. Some victims of theft say pawn shops trafficking in stolen goods is a big problem.
Sue Willard, co-owner and proprietor of Sue's Pawn Shop at 200 E. Sevier St., said that's not the case because pawn shops are regulated more than most types of retail stores.
“What little we do have often comes when a family member takes something from the home and pawns it,” she said. “Then when the owner [of the item] comes in and says, ‘That belongs to me,' we ask them: ‘Have you filed a police report?' “They usually don't want to prosecute their son or daughter or spouse. And they get angry with us. Plus, we tell them that if it was just stolen, we can't sell it for at least 15 days anyway, so it's probably not out (on store shelves) yet.”
Willard said pawn shops are under the same third-party information restrictions as government agencies, doctors, lawyers, pharmacists and others. That becomes a problem, she said, when, for example, a mother sees what she believes is her property and asks if it was her son who brought it in. “When we tell her, ‘Ma'am, I'm sorry, but we can't tell you that,' she becomes frustrated with us.”
One Saline County woman said she has seen several items stolen from her home at a local pawn shop. She said she believes the growing problem can be attributed to the increasing problem of methamphetamine. When the meth user needs money for his habit, she said, he steals something and takes it to a pawn shop to get the cash.
She maintains that pawn shop clerks know when property is stolen. “When a little guy goes in there with two expensive coats for a 300-pound man, they know they are stolen,” she said. “When you go to a pawn shop and find your property there, they tell you to file a police report. Then sometimes you still have to buy your property back from the pawn shop owner.”
Such a situation does occur at times, 22nd District Prosecuting Attorney Robert Herzfeld said. “We seek restitution with any case we try to prosecute,” Herzfeld said. “Often, we are able to get restitution and, usually, that's for the pawn shop owner.
“If police are able to establish that the property was stolen, the pawn shop owner will often turn the property over to the original owner. Then we try to get restitution for the shop owner. If the case is not so clear, then sometimes the theft victim has to pay the shop owner, if they want [the property back] bad enough.”
Detectives with the Benton Police Department acknowledge that stolen items are pawned sometimes, and said that when people are told that they have to file a police report to get their property back, they balk, especially when they fear that it may be a family member involved.
Sgt. Curtis Wood, head of the Benton Police Department's Criminal Investigation Division, said he is hopeful that a new Internet service will help.
LeadsOnline.com, a new Web service that stores information on pawned items and allows law enforcement agencies to post missing property reported from burglaries, will help police recover stolen items.
“We think the system will go a long way toward cutting back on stolen items being pawned,” Wood said. “We recovered $2,000 in stolen goods the first two days, when we were trying it in a free trial period.”
LeadsOnline.com is based in Dallas. Its self-description on its Web site reads: “LeadsOnline.com, a Web-based investigation system enabling law enforcement investigators to solve crimes involving property, was founded in 2000 as a public/private partnership between law enforcement and business owners. It is the nation's largest online investigative system currently being used by law enforcement agencies to solve crimes involving property - from burglary to homicide, arson, identity theft and narcotics crimes.”
The Web site reported that it signed its 400th law enforcement client and recorded its 70 millionth transaction on Aug. 31.
Wood said pawn shop owners may subscribe to the program free, but law enforcement agencies must pay for the service. A proposed ordinance that would require Benton pawn brokers to subscribe to the Web site is pending with the City Council, Wood said. A number of other police departments in the state are already using it with success, he said.
City Attorney Sam Gibson said the ordinance that he has drafted aligns the city with the 2005 state statute that allows municipalities to require pawn brokers to subscribe to such a service and updates the city ordinance passed in the 1960s. The proposal likely will go before the council at its next meeting, on Monday night.
Wood said the daily reports kept by pawn brokers must be manually typed into the police system now. If the ordinance is adopted, police will be able to access the information online.
Another advantage of LeadsOnline, Woods said, is the ability to check descriptions of items reported stolen against items that have been pawned in other cities. He said he thinks that would be a tremendous help.
“Most thieves are smart enough to not try to get rid of their merchandise in the same place they took it,” he said. “If they steal something in Benton, then they're going to take it and try to pawn it in Malvern or Hot Springs, not Benton.
“Being able to check for items pawned in other places will help us a lot.”
Willard of Sue's Pawn Shop said she understands that police believe the system will be a big help, especially with paper work. Sue's Pawn Shop is the only shop in the county that is a member of the National Pawn Brokers Association or the Arkansas Pawn Brokers Association.
“I know they're sold on it, but I'm not so sure yet,” she said. “People can still take stolen items to gun shops, flea markets and places like that to get money because they aren't regulated like we are. We have to see a picture ID, get name, address and phone number and then record a physical description of the person who pawns the items.
“We're going to have to keep reports for LeadsOnline on a separate computer because I can't keep all my information on a system that's connected to the Internet because of the danger of it being broken into by computer hackers. Don't tell me it doesn't happen because it does, and I just can't take that chance.”
Willard said part of the reason the public fears that stolen items are being taken to pawn shops is that the industry is still judged by an old stereotype from the 1940s or ‘50s that isn't realistic.
“We are more regulated than most places,” she said. “It's not here that they usually need to be looking - it's the gun shops and fleas markets and places like that.” |
