After reading “Pawn shop owners feel false perceptions hurt their reputations” 1/18, I strongly disagree with the “fairness” of the new laws regarding the way pawn shop owners can handle stolen property.
My bike was stolen during the Fourth of July weekend. Police found the bike at a pawn shop about two weeks later. I was really excited to get my bike back, since I am a starving college student and rely on my bike to get to school and back. Unfortunately, police told me that a new law would require the pawn shop owner to keep my bike until the criminal investigation was closed.
The thief who stole my bike was sentenced in December. When I went to go pick up my bike, the pawn shop owner expected me to pay for it. I told him that it is unreasonable to ask me to pay for my stolen property that was in his possession. I eventually had to have a police officer go to the pawn shop and pick up my bike for me.
I do not understand how this new law brings “assurance to all parties,” as the article stated. The pawn shop owner had to keep a bike in storage for almost six months and still lost the money they used to buy it. I lost any confidence I had in the pawn shop business and had to walk to campus for an entire semester.
JACOB LOW
Farmington