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addition to
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<br />Shiber musf videotape hts custom
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<br />ls, Bloomin "on sho
<br />gt. ~ p on Lyndale
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<br />ng a sophisUcated
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<br />At
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<br />is stocked to the. rafter$ with
<br />-stereo;equipment; TVs, power
<br />tools ~
<br />,
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<br />` t0 be' nine :: e
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<br />th
<br />m he is d
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<br />~~ Now; he"will,. have'•to hold' hts
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<br />winter' coats, gti~tais and everything = 1 ~' ~ ~ • merchandise for a tnonth, tnstead of.~
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<br />else: someone needing ".cash-`="might
<br />.want to' sell` or pawn. It takes up ~ - - `''~'~='rr' "~ •'•~
<br />`" '- ' A ~8ry1 Shl~l' _ ~'o
<br />weeks; so pohce iiiventones'of}
<br />stolen goods can catch up:wtth pawn-"'
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<br />8,OOb sgtiare feet, not to mention the
<br />additi
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<br />PBWnSI'tOp OW1r1er " ~ ` shop transaction lists. • 3 , .; _
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<br />ona
<br />4,000 square feet of stor- '
<br />age. -space needed elsewhere for the -The new ordinance supplements one
<br />.bike?;, _ snowmobiles" and rnotorcy - ~
<br />.
<br />°
<br />" •.- Passed . in ,1991 that required pawn- .
<br />des. , i
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<br />necessarily better. They claim the shops to hold ohto their merchandise `
<br />" for two weeks before selling if and fo
<br />r
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<br />Shiber says that:each day he and his ; shop is a conduit for stolen merchan-,
<br />dice require customers to show them pho-
<br />
<br />full-time staff of seven employees do .
<br />to identification cards such as drivers
<br />anywhere from `80 to 120 transac-
<br />lions involving 300 ~to 400 items
<br />H ."We take stolen items out of there on
<br />" _ licenses.. ' : • ._
<br />•
<br />.
<br />e
<br />plans to open another pawnshop
<br />this a regular basis,
<br />said Bloomington
<br />Police Chief Robert Lutz Since then, that ordinance "has
<br />be- "
<br />.
<br />week m St
<br />Louts Park -~ _: .
<br />= come a model for many. suburbs in
<br />.
<br />, ~ ~ ~~ '~ ` -
<br />~~ 3loomcngton police and city - ;
<br />Last month Bloomington police `and
<br />the city attorney's office got the Cit : the metropolitan area," said Bloom-
<br />ington Associate City Attorney Greg
<br />
<br />officials, bigger to Shiber's_case is not
<br />. .r.__._ _ . . y
<br />Council to pass an ordinance righten-
<br />'.Pawn continued on page 2B
<br />ttnued from page 1B
<br />ookcr. Brooker said there has been
<br />a trend of pawnshops moving into
<br />suburbs that lack pawnshop ordi-
<br />nances.
<br />Shiber thinks the hue and cry for
<br />more regulation goes back to Rod
<br />Steiger, the actor who played the
<br />pawnbroker in the movie of the same
<br />name. Steiger, Shiber said, created a
<br />seedy image for pawnshop owners
<br />they've never been able to live down.
<br />"Everybody looks at `pawnshop' attd
<br />thinks it's a dirty word," Shiber said.
<br />"It's not. What about antique stores?
<br />They're not regulated. They don't
<br />have to give aday-to-day account of
<br />what they do. Pawnshops do."
<br />Shiber contends that the very size of
<br />his operation makes him a target.
<br />"It's like the Barnum & Bailey Circus
<br />- it's the biggest," he said. "If any-
<br />one's going to get picked on, it's
<br />going to be me."
<br />Shiber said that with so much mer-
<br />chandise going through his pawnshop
<br />every day, there can't help but be
<br />some stolen items that get through
<br />unnoticed, despite daily police
<br />~cks of his transactions. He said he
<br />Aerates with police in tracking
<br />stolen merchandise and has a hand-
<br />ful of testimonials from metropolitan
<br />!aw-enforcement agencies to prove it.
<br />Brooker agreed that National Pawn-
<br />~rokers ttas cooperated.
<br />affidavits from several Minne-
<br />__ ~, _ - p p~Ys out, ol~ce
<br />__ p
<br />~~n ton a .. _
<br />~attent~
<br />r _ ~g. _ _ p ~ y on ,
<br />~~ . ; :: -
<br />t c ~ ~ "~ `_ ing the` "regulatory screws on''`the5
<br />~- _ It s like the Barnum city's two pawnshops, with National?-
<br />~- ,~ ~ ~ ~- r Pawnbrokers pnmanly m mtnd: -~'~
<br />axonal i , & :Bailey Circus s~ zits _ . ~; ~:~_ _ .. ~ _ ~ ~i~~'
<br />s.
<br />u
<br />apolis police officers presented to the
<br />Bloomington City Council by
<br />Brooker noted numerous cases of
<br />stolen property going through Na-
<br />tional Pawnbrokers and instances
<br />where shop employees couldn't find
<br />stolen items police wanted to re-
<br />trieve.
<br />Ina 1992 memo addressed to the
<br />Minneapolis police licensing divi-
<br />sion, Minneapolis police warehouse
<br />supervisor Dan Boland noted ~ "an
<br />alarming increase in the number of
<br />Minneapolis police cases resulting in
<br />stolen property winding up at Na-
<br />tional Pawn...."
<br />And the pawnshop was the target of a
<br />six-month investigation by the Hen-
<br />nepin County Sheriffs Department
<br />and Bloomington Police Department
<br />that, while resulting in no charges
<br />against Shiber, did culminate in Sep-
<br />tember in the arrest of l2 customers,
<br />mostly on outstanding warrants. Five
<br />were arrested on charges that they
<br />were selling items bought with stolen
<br />credit cards.
<br />operation," he said. "If we have an
<br />RCA TV that comes in and it's
<br />marked down as a Magnavox and the
<br />serial numbers are two digits off; it's
<br />not going to work with us."
<br />Shiber said record-keeping errors are
<br />inevitable in an operation as large as
<br />his. "The Police Department and ev-
<br />erybody else makes typographical er-
<br />rors," he said.
<br />But whether Shiber and National
<br />Pawnbrokers are beyond reproach
<br />isn't the point anyway, said Lutz and
<br />Brooker. "My feeling is that even
<br />with the most cooperative and most
<br />honest of pawnbrokers, that it's a
<br />business that requires significant po-
<br />lice surveillance," Lutz said.
<br />And Brooker warned that if the tide
<br />of stolen merchandise that winds up
<br />at National Pawnbrokers isn't
<br />stemmed, Bloomington officials
<br />might have to clamp down even
<br />tighter. "There may be more in the
<br />future," he said.
<br />Lutz said he fears that the stolen
<br />property recovered from the pawn-
<br />shop is only a small amount of the
<br />total.
<br />Plus, said Lutz, there have been too
<br />many cases of clerical errors at Na-
<br />tional Pawnbrokers; cases where a
<br />serial number is misrecorded, for in-
<br />stance.
<br />"We have found a significant num-
<br />ber of mistakes, and certainly enough
<br />to make us very suspicious of the
<br />!.
<br />~1 G~2
<br />~~
<br />~3e¢
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