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thedailycitizen.com
Law aids recovery of items, arrests
Pawn shop owner: System worked, room for growth
By Warren Watkins
July 14, 2011
A Searcy man has found out how the state's system for recovering stolen items works.
J.D. Hood's home was robbed sometime during the week before the Fourth of July holiday.
"From what we understand it was Monday, Tuesday or Wednesday," Hood said. "My daughter was in the hospital and I was on a cruise. She invited these boys and one of her friends over to visit. She had just met them a few weeks ago. She went to the hospital and they left the next day. They were here two, maybe three days, because my neighbor says she had seen that car over here two or three days."
While on his way home after departing the cruise ship, Hood got a phone call telling him some things were missing from his home.
"My mother-in-law came in and called me and said, 'Where's your TV?'" Hood said. "I told her to just shut the door behind her and leave the house. We called the law and we had them look for specific things in the house like the PlayStation and TVs."
Searcy Detective Brian Wyatt came to the Hood home after 4 p.m., Hood said, and by 6 p.m. Wyatt got a hit on a pawn shop in Jonesboro on the television and PlayStation," Hood said.
Hood said the items were found at Jim's Pawn Shop in Jonesboro, a fact confirmed by the pawn shop manager.
"He was going to go over there the next day to pick it up but they told him the only way he could get it was to pay $400, because that's what they got on the pawn ticket," Hood said. "He told them, 'No, that's not the way we do business because we're not going to let these people be victimized twice.' He went up there and one of the owners got really hot with him."
Hood said Wyatt then came back to Searcy and did research on the law.
The pawn shop did agree to give Hood his items back, including the wide-screen television.
"They went ahead and gave it to us," Wyatt said. "There wasn't any kind of a problem there."
Leads Online, the Internet-based registration system for items reported stolen, worked like it was designed to work, Wyatt said.
"It's a law enforcement website that keeps us in touch with all the pawn shops," Wyatt said. "At first they didn't want to turn loose of the property, then they decided to."
Wyatt summarized the state's laws concerning stolen items.
"What we have found is that according to the statute the pawn shop must release the property to a police department if requested and then the police department is to hold onto the property or the pawn shop is to hold on to it pending the outcome of the case," Wyatt said.
Hood's property was returned July 5, Wyatt said.
The pawn shop's manager, Pam Barton, said there are more at issue than the property owner's rights.
"We were a victim, too, because we had money in that merchandise as well," Barton said. "We reported the way we were supposed to report."
In many cases there is a lag time, Barton said, between when items are stolen and when they are entered into the LeadsOnline system. But the bigger flaw in the system is that she could not access the information even if it had been reported, preventing her from refusing to buy what she would then know is merchandise reported stolen.
"It's reported to the police department and not reported to the pawn shop," Barton said. "If I had known at all, if I had the serial numbers on the items, I wouldn't have taken them because we do lose our money. It's a reporting agency for victims but pawn shops and citizens cannot access the information."
Barton acknowledged that there is a right to privacy issue involved because the owner's personal information is entered into the system.
"Here in Jonesboro, a lot of people will come in and bring their serial numbers with them," Barton said of how some victims search pawn shops for their stolen items.
Update
Just after 4 p.m. Thursday, Barton called The Daily Citizen to say the suspects who had pawned Hood's items had just walked back into her store.
"I called the police and they arrested them and are putting them in the back of the police car as we speak," Barton said.
Hood was given the news shortly thereafter.
"Hot dang! Hot dang!" Hood said. "That's what I'm talking about. Now tell me if that LeadsOnline system doesn't really work. Whoever came up with that LeadsOnline did a good job."