Recovering Stolen Goods from a Pawn Shop

Recovering stolen goods from a pawn shop shouldn’t be hard right? Think again, it’s actually almost impossible to retrieve your stolen goods once they find there way into a pawn shop. Pawn shops have a reputation for dealing in stolen merchandise. However, that’s not always the case. Pawn shops are required to keep a copy of the persons driver license, or state I.D on file when that person pawns an item in most states. But, lets say your home is burglarized, and you have a police report of everything stolen. A few days later you spot your stuff in a pawn shop, and you know it’s yours. How do you get it back?

The most common items both stolen from homes, and pawned at pawn shops are jewelry, tools, musical instruments, game consoles and games, Cd’s, Dvd’s, computers, and other expensive electronics. Almost all electric tools, and expensive electronics have serial numbers on them, however jewelry and other smaller items do not. You should always write the serial numbers from everything you own of value down, and keep that list in a safe place. You will need to report the serial number on the police report. If the item in the pawn shop matches the serial number you have on your police report, then the pawn shop must contact the authorities, and provide them with a copy of the identification of the person who pawned the item. Some states require that the pawn shop give you your item back, unfortunately in most states, the pawn shop will only have to offer the item to you for the same price the item was pawned for. After that you will have to seek restitution for reimbursement through the court system.

Items that do not have serial numbers on them or the serial number has been removed are practically impossible to recover. Items such as jewelry are mass produced, so even it you have several pieces in one pawn shop, there is nothing you can do about it. The only way to possibly recover items without serial numbers is to have some other type of marking on the piece. Example: you could have the numbers 103 engraved inside all your rings, or 4 lines engraved side by side on the clasp of your necklaces. If you do take this measure, again you must write it on the police report, as soon as you report your items missing.

After taking all these steps, what are the chances of finding your stuff in a pawn shop? Pawn shops are hot spots for thieves to unload their loot. However, most pawn shops are franchised. Just because an item is sold at one store, it may end up in another store, maybe in another state, before it is placed for sale. Jewelry with names engraved, or visible markings in which they can’t be sold as “like new” are often melted down, and made into other pieces of jewelry. Items such as Cd’s, and Dvd’s come a dime a dozen, if the cd or dvd is marked, more then likely the pawn shop will not even buy it.

Pawn shops are great places to find a few deals, and again not everything in the store is stolen. However, the same laws that protect the store, also protect the criminals that rely on them. Regardless of how slim your chances are, it is always best check out every local pawn shop if your valuables are stolen. Even though they might not be rightfully handed to you once you find them, irreplaceable pieces are worth paying for. For more information relating to this article please visit http://definitions.uslegal.com/p/pawnshops/.

Reference:

• definitions.uslegal.com/p/pawnshops/