Pawnbrokers are required by Federal and State law enforcement agencies to report the business they conduct. Simply put, every pawn or buy transaction is reported to these authorities on a regular basis.
Pawn shops are the only business that requires positive identification from every person whom they pawn or buy something from.
Ted's Pawn Shop and Law Enforcement work together in our community!
Approximately just 1/10 of 1 percent of all the items that come into a pawn shop are stolen, and most of those are domestic situations.
When citizens purchase an item, they do not "think" they will become a victim of a theft or burglary. As a result the property is rarely itemized or logged into a household inventory. Victims are unfamiliar with the criminal justice system. Search and recovery procedures are confusing, vary from city to city, and are generally limited just to pawnbrokers. Pawnbrokers are the only secondhand dealers that report transaction information to law enforcement. Thus, most stolen items are never recovered. If you are searching for stolen goods, try looking in places such as:
The Better Business Bureau, Cincinnati, OH chapter
The National Pawnbrokers Association
The Ohio Pawnbrokers Association
eBay PowerSellers