By Kelly Wiley
May 9, 2018
AUGUSTA, Ga. (WRDW/WAGT) – If there’s one thing Greg Driggers doesn’t like it’s a thief.
“We have been here 35 years and it’s a stigma that goes along with this business. Everybody thinks ‘how can you take in stolen merchandise?’ Well, that’s not true,” said Greg Driggers, AAA Gun, and Pawn.
So, when Douglas Braham brought in a practically new Dyson vacuum into his pawn shop, claiming it was his grandmothers’ who had just passed away, he asked questions.
“I’m kind of curious because it’s in the box, but are we going to have a problem with this out of any of your family or anything?”
“He assured me. ‘Oh no we are not going to have any problems’ well he lied to me.”
Big time.
“Apparently he walked out of some department store and straight into this store.”
You see every time they take something in, they also take your photo, your thumbprint, and photo ID.
Then every night they run it all through a site called LeadsOnline.
Once they ran Braham’s name, they got a phone call from the Columbia County Sheriff’s Office.
“I said let me guess it’s a Dyson, I said yep. That son of a gun. You know. ”
And then another call from the alleged thief looking to sell more.
“We knew he was coming and notified the sheriff’s office.”
Turns out Braham’s rap sheet was longer than a vacuum cord. He’s been arrested multiple times in Florida too.
Kelly: Did you have any last words for Braham?
Greg: Bye!
AAA Gun and Pawn isn’t the only shop in town using LeadsOnline to filter out the bad guys and stolen goods.
Richmond County adopted an ordinance in 2013 mandating all purchasers of second-hand goods do the same.
“The people are going to get the merchandise back and the bad guys are going to go to jail, just cut and dry.”
After the ordinance was put in place in 2013, Richmond County’s Sheriff’s Office did an undercover sting and cited at least seven different pawn shops not following the proper protocol of taking proper records to see if the merchandise was stolen.