Busting a family tradition of pawning stolen items

“During another investigation, I noticed some suspicious pawn transactions from a mother, son, and daughter. This Stillwater family had pawned numerous MP3 players and video cameras at several different Oklahoma City pawn shops. These transactions were all within 3-4 days and spread out across several pawn shops in the OKC area. There were approximately 15-20 similar electronic items pawned. I contacted the company that sold the specific MP3 player and learned the mother currently worked at a Return Center in Stillwater and was one of their more `trusted employees.` I also learned of large amounts of electronic products mysteriously disappearing from the company, in which the company’s own investigation had yielded no viable suspects. After showing the management the recent pawn transactions from LeadsOnline, they determined this trusted employee (and some of her co-workers) were actually embezzling large amounts of electronics from the company. LeadsOnline is one of my favorite investigative tools when dealing with property crimes. Now if only the REST of the investigation went as easy!”

Paul Priegel
Stillwater Police Department
Oklahoma