Pawn brokers assist police Detectives find shops fruitful in hunt for suspects

They're known as places where someone can get rid of unwanted items. But police often find exactly what they want at pawn shops.

To them, the shops are a vital resource in finding wanted people, particularly suspects in burglaries or thefts.

That proved true for Bluffton Police Det. Christian Gonzales, who recently got a break in a burglary case when he made his weekly checkup on the comings and goings of the pawn-shop industry.

At a shop in Georgia, Gonzales located a gold link necklace and a gold rope necklace that were of interest. He said the items were stolen from a home on Goethe Road sometime between May 21 and June 12.

Under state law, pawn shops are required to provide police with copies of records on all transactions. Clients must show photo identification, and pawn-shop employees use that to gather Social Security numbers, physical descriptions, addresses, phone numbers and other information about sellers. Some states require fingerprints in order to sell items to pawn shops.

Customer information led Gonzales to Shirley Latham of Shults Road in Bluffton, the person the detective said pawned the jewelry after it was given to her as a gift from her son, 30-year-old Torrie Lavale Latham.

Both were charged with receiving stolen goods. Gonzales said he still is investigating how the items came into Torrie Latham's possession, but Latham supposedly had been dating the victim.

"Pawn shops really are invaluable to us," Gonzales said.

Pawn-shop transactions sometimes point to suspects of more serious crimes.

Ray Clark, owner of Top Dollar Pawn & Sales on Mathews Drive, said he helped police solve a series of rapes about 12 years ago when a man tried to sell a VCR. The serial number on the VCR came back as stolen from a rape scene, and the man who wanted to sell it was the suspect.

"I don't like losing money," Clark said. "But it's worth it to me because I'm a citizen, too. And it's another criminal off the streets."

Beaufort County Sheriff P.J. Tanner said the benefits of the relationship between police and pawn shops is twofold, allowing police to monitor items being sold as well as people. If they're looking for a suspected criminal, they often see the person's name on a pawn receipt and thus have a new address and phone number for them.

"It's intelligence," Tanner said. "And it's very effective."

Clark said the number of stolen items that show up in his pawn shop is contingent on the amount of criminal activity. He's seen as many as five in one week, but sometimes he doesn't find any for weeks, even months.

The pawn-shop owner often isn't reimbursed for items he buys that later are seized by police. But that's the nature of the business, Clark said.

Though he has a large sign on the wall notifying customers that police get copies of their receipts, he said the pawned items often lead the way to wanted criminals.

"You'd be surprised how many people miss (the sign)," Clark said. "Either they're not intelligent enough to know about it or they're brave enough to take a chance. Either way, I'm bound by the law."

Tanner said that because many criminals take items stolen from Beaufort County to other counties to pawn them, there needs to be a better overall system to track pawn-shop sales. And it also would be helpful if people would write down serial numbers of their personal property.

But keeping an eye on what's being pawned still is making a difference for local law enforcement, the sheriff said.

"That's why we check up on it on a regular basis," he said.