This is quite a coincidence.

I once worked with a guy who was into drag racing big time who thought nothing of buying stolen parts and cars to keep his costs down. I asked him if he would like it if it happened to him, he got PISSED, said there would be a beatdown. Hypocrite much?

Adrian_Thompson wrote: Serious suggestion. Can you get the Police to finger print you and dust the trains for prints? If stolen they probably just took them straight to the shop without taking them out of the boxes. Then the pawn shop should have a list of who brought them in and you have your theif.

This is the best idea thus far. Cops are hesitant to Dust for prints because, "it's expensive" is what I was told when I had things stolen. Hopefully the cops are helpful and the pawn shop as well.

Know what else is expensive? Theft.

Around here, pawn shops are required to see photo ID to purchase or pawn something.

In reply to clutchsmoke:

Well, to answer that correctly, the analysis is expensive. And Wally's prints are probably already in the system due to his employment.

Thieves suck. Suck suck suck.

That blows dude. I had some punks break into my shed and steal my nice multimeter and gas leaf blower, I searched the local CL adds but never saw the stuff come up for sale. Figured they just traded it for meth somewhere.

I'm very bummed out to hear about this, but would the cops actually go as far as checking fingerprints on a set of (possibly) stolen toy trains?

I bet if Wally showed up at the pawn shop, called the cops, showed them the pictures of his trains, pointed to the trains in the pawn shop and said "Those are mine, and they were stolen from my house sometime in the past year," the cops would ask the pawn shop where they got them, and Wally would get his trains back. Fingerprints would not be necessary. The pics would be enough.

I certainly don't expect the town to roll out CSI for a few toy trains. I spoke with a PO. I decided not to go to the store yesterday because I have a bit of a temper and didn't go today since the PD asked me to wait until they looked into it. I wasn't going to call the police because I had a pretty poor track record having them help before I moved up here but the wife figured it would be a good idea since there were a lot of problems lately. From past experience I don't expect that they will be able to do much and if I want them back I will most likely have to buy them. The only good they may come out of it is if the pawn shop gives them the info of the seller they may have someone to watch should something happen in the future.

If the local PD is no help call the State Police. Pawn man will probably be more cooperative if a State Trooper shows up and not his local Golfing buddy. Calmly state your case and request results.

Our local police do a good job from what I understand I just don't know how much they can do legally. There are no serial numbers or anything to match so I am not sure what would be acceptable proof in their eyes? When I lived on Long Island I had a bike and my uncle had a soda truck stolen and even after we found them and contacted the police there was a whole song and dance to try and get them. The bike disappeared before I got it back and my father drove the truck back when the NCPD couldn't be bothered to come and do anything.

My brother in law is a cop and he has to go to the pawn shops all the time. I think the shop owner will be pretty cooperative. They probably deal with stuff like this every day. They do not want stolen merchandise.

If there is a theft ring operating in your neighborhood it needs to be adressed. Try to talk to the Pawn broker and calmly explain the situation. Ask him if he has a "1978 Lionel train set with a Black Locomotive..." and proceed to explain it in minute detail. He shouldn't want stolen property in his shop, if he does he is part of the problem.

I told the officer I was ok with them doing their job so I will give the a little time and I will cool off a bit. If I went down there today and had a problem I may have done something stupid.

Dr. Hess wrote: I bet if Wally showed up at the pawn shop, called the cops, showed them the pictures of his trains, pointed to the trains in the pawn shop and said "Those are mine, and they were stolen from my house sometime in the past year," the cops would ask the pawn shop where they got them, and Wally would get his trains back. Fingerprints would not be necessary. The pics would be enough.

Lionel E36 M3 isn't gonna be common in a pawn shop in Brooklyn, or wherever wally is. I'd bet dollars to donuts he could get the pawn man to roll if PD helped at all.

Wouldn't be the first time a shop, jeweler or metal yard has looked the other way and claimed ignorance for accepting hot items, "wink wink".

Local metal yard took in hundreds of pounds of bronze military grave placards and paid out no questions, no red flags even after publicized huh? Neighbor had to track down their antique jewelry at local shops after a break in, cops were overburdened. Mall kiosk jeweler was thought shady but the kids rolled on 'em as a known easy sale for hot items. Nothing stuck but their rep went downhill fast, went outta business shortly after.

Nothing wrong w/ stirring the pot a little, might shake out a little riff-raff.

Sorry to hear Wally. Hopefully you get your stuff back, regardless of how it was removed from your property.

Sounds like my new neighbors. Not only does their ragged looking cat like to rocket into our garage as soon as we open it and piss on whatever it can...the high school aged kids like to loiter in our yard instead of theirs, double park our driveway, help themselves to a bike ride on my pit bike or to our emergency stash of water in the garage. I've literally walked into the house from the garage for less than 30 seconds to come back out and find these sheetheads red handed. I now leave the pitbike with no air in the tires, the water case in the garage got a full baking in the sun to release those toxins, when they double park I get both floor jacks and leave their car in the middle of the road, and a bucket of water in the middle of the night doing some black ops to sneak up on them has removed them loitering.

There's some dirtbags out there who know exactly what's coming in the door and that it's hot, they just don't care and cut what they pay the thieves accordingly. One night the indie Mercedes shop got hit for twelve catalytic converters, the boss went to the local converter place the next day and saw at least eight of them with Mercedes part numbers with fresh saw marks etc in one of those roll around carts. The guy who ran the place got right up in his face, said 'You see a serial number on them?' the boss said 'no', the guy says 'Well until you do and can prove they are yours GTFO my property'. AFAIK the guy is still in business and there's not a damn thing the cops can do.

Curmudgeon wrote: There's some dirtbags out there who know exactly what's coming in the door and that it's hot, they just don't care and cut what they pay the thieves accordingly.

this

fasted58 wrote: Wouldn't be the first time a shop, jeweler or metal yard has looked the other way and claimed ignorance for accepting hot items, "wink wink". Local metal yard took in hundreds of pounds of bronze military grave placards and paid out no questions, no red flags even after publicized huh? Neighbor had to track down their antique jewelry at local shops after a break in, cops were overburdened. Mall kiosk jeweler was thought shady but the kids rolled on 'em as a known easy sale for hot items. Nothing stuck but their rep went downhill fast, went outta business shortly after. Nothing wrong w/ stirring the pot a little, might shake out a little riff-raff.

up where i used to live, someone stole a well known bronze statue and cut it into chunks so they could take it to different scrap yards.. every scrap yard knew something was up when someone brought in a leg or an arm that looked like it was from the statue that the cops had alerted them about, so they all paid bottom dollar and took the guy's info but he always got out of there before they could stop him. he got busted when he took the head of the statue into a scrap yard and one of the employees "accidentally" parked the yard truck behind his so he couldn't get a way until the cops showed up. that was the end of his meth buying spree..

stupid criminals are stupid..

regarding the trains: if you have good pics of them that shows any blemishes or scratches that would be unique to them, then bring them to the pawn shop and compare them to what they have in stock. if it matches, you get to walk out with your stuff..

Don't let it sit to long Wally. Buy it back and continue the argument with it safely at home. Use a credit card and dispute the charges?

Thats a good idea. The wife is calling the credit card company tomorrow to ask a couple questions and If nothing happens by my next day off that may be our plan.

We had a nice clock stolen and did know the serial number and gave it to the police. Lo and behold it turned up at a pawn shop. However! We had to pay the pawn shop what they paid for it to get it back! The police said that was the procedure. What kind of crap is that? It was only $75 but still that was 20 years ago and I still fume when I think about it.

I'm even ok with that if I get to find out who sold it to him. I'm curious how much he paid since the price he's asking is about twice what I paid the first time.