I posted another thread, saying that my boss’s house was robbed. the police told her she should go around to pawn shops to try to find her stuff. They told her that if she found any of her stuff, not to say anything to anyone in the shop.
How does that work? AIUI, pawn shops have to hold items for a certain amount of time, just in case they’re stolen. If she waits until the items are put out for sale, they may be sold before she sees them. If she talks to the manager before the time has elapsed, then she stands a good chance of finding her things if they are there – unless the store owner/manager/staff are crooked, in which case they can get rid of it.
So when should she conduct a search of pawn shops? Before the items are put out, or after? If she wants to see them before the holding period has expired, how can she do that without talking to staff?
A legitimate pawn shop is VERY tightly monitored by the police. EVERYTHING that comes into a pawn shop is reported to the police, and must be held for a certain period of time (IIRC 30 days) before it can be put out onto the sales floor.
My mother used to work as a police department secretary, which was where I found this out.
I think that the possibility of the pawn shop being crooked is why the police told the woman not to let the employees know that she found her stolen merchandise there. Because if she does let them know, they’re going to get rid of it as soon as she leaves.
The 30-day waiting period thing definitely isn’t universal. In general, though, it is definitely in the best interests of a pawn shop to not accept merchandise which is obviously stolen since if the owner finds it, generally they’re out whatever they paid the thief.
Around here, there’s no mandatory waiting period, but from what I understand if the pawnbroker has reason to be suspicious about your box of car stereos with the wires cut he’ll set them aside for a week or so and check with the cops before you get your money. It’s entirely voluntary and mostly just depends on the pawnbroker’s gut feeling. If the pawnbroker were wrong and unscrupulous he could have reason to try to hide something between the owner ID’ing it on the shelf and the cops showing up to take it into evidence. The cops here tell you if you really want it back, buy it as soon as you find it and they can usually get your money back.
I had my lawnmower stolen a few years back. I headed to the local pawn shop, to ask what the chances are that it’d turn up there. From what I can tell, they gave me an honest answer. “If you’ve filled out a police report, and the item can be adequately identified, we’d give you your lawnmower back (if we had it). But in nearly every case of stolen property, the thieves are smart enough to take it to a pawn shop on the other side of town. Even if it was here, I doubt you have a serial number for it. If that was the case, we’d just sell it back to you at whatever price we paid for it.”