One of the quirks of Oregon law is the distinction between second-hand stores and pawnbrokers. As the Oregonian has reported, second-hand stores are subject to very little regulation and can act almost with impunity as receivers and resellers of stolen goods. (Yes, I understand that the owners say that they don’t know the goods are stolen when they buy them, but how many of us find ourselves with an extra two cases of Similac that we want to resell?)
Separately from the question of second-hand stores operating as fences, there were some stores in the area that operated as unlicensed pawnbrokers. People would bring merchandise into the store to sell — often a gun or something of clear value — and the store would promise not to sell the item to anyone else for a period of two weeks or four weeks, to give the seller the exclusive chance to buy the item back, at a higher price. In effect, the item was security for a loan, but the transaction was cast as a sale and repurchase. The reason for this foofaraw was that the state regulates pawnbrokers and prohibits them from charging more than 36% interest. (The statutes are here.) But a second-hand store could buy a gun or other item for (say) $50 and sell it back to the owner two weeks later for $60 (equal to about 520% interest).
Something the city or county could consider is adopting a regulation for second-hand stores similar to ORS 726.280 and 726.285 (which you can read at the above link) that requires pawnbrokers to maintain records of what they take in pledge, to make those records available to police, and to give the police identifying information about everyone who pledges an item. This might be limited to items that are frequently stolen for resale, but it would at least be a start on cutting down on the market for stolen property. And it might save a few car windows from being broken.
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your second example, sell for $50 and buy back for $60 is common at a pawn shop. I don’t have my pawn tickets handy right now, but i recently pawned some guitars and then got them back… for exactly that. Granted, the loan time is for a month, but if you get it out of hock in a week, three weeks, a month, or you get an extension (another $10), it’s the same.
It appears that the only difference in the offered example is the time of the loan, and that, most likely, the stores are pocketing that extra dough/interest, and *not* paying the huge bond needed to officially be a pawn shop or the state licensing fee. Also, pawn shops have a sort of CYA with the police. Serial numbers, ID numbers, home addresses are checked and sent to the PD before the item is released for sale (or repurchase, but most people fencing stolen stuff aren’t going to come back and buy it back), in case it was reported stolen.
I found this stuff out when i was at a pawn shop and found a friend’s bass for sale that had been stolen. No one reported it stolen, so all my friend could do was go in and buy it back.
d’oh i’m totally braindead. you already went into the CYA practices of pawn shops ;). But still, if you have something stolen, and you don’t report it, and you see it later at a pawn shop, you get to buy it aaaallll over again unless you can otherwise concretely prove your thing was stolen.