Law, order & the pawn shop

By JOHN BURNETT

Tribune-Herald staff writer

When burglars strike, they need to unload their ill-gotten loot as quickly as possible, and the recent rash of break-ins on the Big Island has police checking pawn shops, secondhand stores and gold buyers in an attempt to catch the thieves and recover their plunder.

At least one of the alleged burglars, 20-year-old Shaylyn Momi Araw of Pepeekeo, was arrested and charged late last month after police found jewelry reported stolen in a downtown Hilo pawn shop.

“The police got the merchandise. That’s how they caught her was through us,” Mike Smallwood, owner of Hilo Loan Shop on Mamo Street, said Wednesday during a brief lull in an otherwise busy morning.

Smallwood said Araw presented her ID and a thumbprint, as the law requires for those who pawn valuables or sell items to a secondhand store.

“She had what sounded like a legit story, that her grandmother had just passed, and the family was selling her stuff,” Smallwood said. He said Araw left with $6,100.

“I’ll never get it back,” he said. “I can’t withstand too many of those or it would put me out of business.”

Asked how often that happens, Smallwood held up a file folder about two inches thick listing merchandise confiscated by police after it was found to have been stolen. He estimates he’s lost “at least $100,000” in such transactions in his 15 years in business.

Pawn shops, secondhand dealers and precious metal buyers are required by law to keep items they’ve bought or made loans on for 15 days before reselling them.

“Jewelry is a concern for us,” said police Lt. Greg Esteban of the Criminal Investigations Section. “There’s only so much jewelry one person can accumulate, but there are people who, on a regular basis, are selling jewelry at pawn shops, secondhand dealers or the gold buyer shops. That kind of raises a red flag for us.”

Tim Beatty of Big Island Coin & Stamp, also on Mamo Street, said Wednesday a young man tried to sell him a piece of jewelry on Tuesday that Beatty knew was stolen.

“I was really fortunate that the (owner) came in on Friday and described it to me,” he said. “… It was a pretty distinctive piece of jewelry. And this kid came in … and tried to sell it to me. I called (police) and they were here in 10 minutes and apprehended that individual. Whether or not you can always tell if something is stolen, no, because he gave his ID. Again, if I had (the jewelry), I would hold it for 15 days, but I’d still be out the money. It’s a high-risk kind of thing.”

The suspect has not yet been charged with the alleged burglary.

Beatty added that thieves sometimes break or smash jewelry to make it unrecognizable, so he doesn’t buy broken jewelry.

Smallwood said that he’s also become more cautious about buying jewelry due to the recent burglary spike.

“I’ve turned away a lot in the last three months because if you don’t know who you’re dealing with, it’s better to turn them down than to have (police) come in and take it from you,” he said.

Police issue “hot sheets” with descriptions of items reported stolen and circulate them among pawnbrokers and secondhand dealers, and they’ve helped police to be “marginally successful” in recovering stolen property, Esteban said.

“I got so many hot sheets now, I can’t keep up with reading them, and it’s too bad. We try,” Smallwood said. “The easiest ones have a name on it or a serial number. It’s important for people to start writing serial numbers down.”

Added Beatty: “I advise all people who have their property stolen to contact the pawn shops, the gold dealers, the coin dealers and let us know. We have it on file. The Police Department only has so many people working for them. They can only come down here if you make a police report and it’s an active police report. (The jewelry owner) came down here on her own after she got broken into to let us know what she was missing. That way, it was really easy to tell.”

Beatty said that his precious metals business has “picked up about 10 times from what we used to do” before the economy went south in 2008. Despite that, he estimated that items his shop buys that later turn out to be stolen comprise “less than 10 percent of our take.”

“We’ve worked really hard to make sure that what they’re bringing in is really theirs,” he said. “We do compile a list of people that have brought in stolen stuff. Once you’re on that list, you’re not bringing anything back to us.”

Smallwood said he also has a computerized record system to ensure those who have pawned stolen goods don’t do it again.

“I paid big bucks for this. Once they’re in the paper, or on the hot sheet, or police tell me, we’ll block ’em out. They can’t do business in here,” he said. “Ninety-five to 98 percent of the people who come in are legit. Then there’s the rest of those who come in that messes you up, and that’s the percentage that we’d like to get rid of.”

He said police come to his shop often and are “really working” at trying to solve burglaries and recover stolen property.

Smallwood said his home was burglarized about year ago with money, his wife’s jewelry and his daughter’s iPod, cellphone and Nintendo DS taken.

“Protect your valuables. Don’t leave them laying around like I did,” he said. “If you have jewelry or coins, the valuable stuff, lock it up where nobody knows. Especially if you have somebody in your family that you think is doing drugs or is on medication. I see it all the time. Sometimes, it’s family members who are taking stuff. And these poor people, especially the older ones, have worked years to save for it, and then it’s gone.”

The Community Policing Division provides free home security inspections. To schedule an appointment, call 961-8121.

Email John Burnett at jburnett@hawaiitribune-herald.com.