Stolen Tools

[Jason280]

I'm confused by a couple people's comments on here. If your items were stolen and sold to a pawn shop. Why are YOU required to pay the pawn shop to get your rightful property back?

That doesn't make sense to me. Pawn shop paid money for stolen merchandise. Cop verifies merchandise is yours but you have to pay the pawn ticket to get your stuff back?? I'm not seeing how this is legal in any sense.

That's not the way it works, at least not in Georgia.

As long as you file a police report and have serial numbers (or other verifiable information), the pawn shop releases the items to LEOs. Once the case is finished, the items are then released to the owner. The pawn shop then goes after the individual who stole the stuff, and are typically paid back under conditions of probation/parole. Of course, that's only if the individual is convicted.

Now, I have seen instances where families go into a pawn shop and find grandpa's old guns or auntie's jewelry and demand it back. Of course, they won't press charges on the nephew who stole the stuff in the first place, so there is no police report. In this instance, the pawn shop is under no obligation to return the items because there is no legitimate proof (without a police report) that it was actually stolen.

 

[kjdhawkhill]

That's why I don't frequent pawn shops.
I consider them the moral equivalent of brothels.

Weak comparison. One knows what one pays for in a brothel. Pawn shops are like a box of Forrest Gump's chocolates.

 

[Farrier]

Here in central Ca, my county Sheriff offers engraving/ stamping for equipment and tools. It all goes into data base. Virtually everything I own is either engraved/ stamped or plated with a code. Haven't been robbed yet...... knock, knock. You guys should offer this link below to your county officials. Great program

http://www.da-tulareco.org/agricultural_crime.htm

Also, I take pictures of every new tool I buy that goes in my truck or my shop. I also have taken random videos of inside my shop for reference if I were ever to be robbed or suffer from the unfortunate fire. Too easy to forget all of the tools and bits and pieces that's been collected over the years. Pictures and video are terrific reminders when it comes to insurance reimbursement.

 

[6768rogues]

My son let a salesman talk him into buying some extension cords with his company name and phone number printed on them. Fast forward a year or so and one of his tool trailers was burglarized at a jobsite. A month or so after that, the police about 75 miles from his burglarized trailer called him; they arrested someone with stolen tools and one of the extension cords had my son's company name and phone number printed on it. He got some of his stuff back.