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SALT LAKE CITY — Undercover investigators say not only did several pawn shops under investigation buy items still in their original store packaging; but in some cases, the items were purchased with the store security devices still on them, according to court documents.
In June, investigators from the Utah Attorney General's Office served search warrants on seven pawn shops along the Wasatch Front following numerous complaints that some were acting as fencing operations, or knowingly purchasing stolen goods from people.
Investigators seized an "overwhelming" amount of property that day, according to the Utah Attorney General's Office, ranging from power tools to kitchen appliances to sporting goods.
Over the weekend, several of those warrants were unsealed and additional details of the operation revealed.
Many of the initial complaints that sparked the investigation came from Home Depot, "who stated their stores in Utah were seeing a significant increase in retail theft and they believed a large number of the items being stolen from their stores were being fenced in local pawn shops," according to the warrants.
Warrants were served in Kearns, Lindon, West Jordan, Riverton, Salt Lake City and West Valley City.
From March until June, undercover officers were able to successfully sell items provided by Home Depot to several pawn shops, the warrants state.
"These transactions generally consisted of the sale of new in the box tools or other household items of significant value, and often with two or more of the same or similar items included in the transaction," one warrant stated. "During the course of these transactions very little if any questions were asked of the undercover officers as to the origin of the items, why they would be selling rather than returning the item to the store of purchase, and if a receipt was available for the item."
In a couple of cases, the pawn shop employees simply removed the anti-theft devices still on the items being sold, the warrants state. Other pawn shops not under investigation refused to purchase the same items from undercover officers, according to the warrants.
Undercover investigators sold 43 items to one company that runs four pawn shops and 25 to another that owns two shops, the warrants state.
"A review of the transactions from the undercover operations uploaded to the Statewide Central Pawn Database ... showed several listed items were missing serial numbers and lacked other required information," according to the warrants.
Investigators also looked at the records of several individuals who were selling items to pawn shops on nearly a daily basis.
One man sold 393 items to pawn stores in 16 months, another 392, and a third person 327 items, the warrants state.
As of Monday, no arrests had been made or charges filed.
Investigators said it would take them some time to sort through the mountain of evidence they had seized.
