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A comment on The Cost of Getting My Stolen Computer Back. Parent comment

Re:The Cost of Getting My Stolen Computer Back by Cthulhu_ on Wednesday January 07, 2015 @10:28AM (#8850977)
Yeah, pawn shops are usually very wary about buying / taking stolen goods - after all, they'd be guilty of fencing if they bought / sold the stuff. I'm pretty sure people have to leave a copy of their ID too (or if not, they should). Although that can be faked, of course.

Anyway, if I was a thief I'd steal something, make sure to wipe the thing as soon as possible and power it down (due to Apple's remote location service), then leave it for a month, maybe two, before selling it on a random online auction / secondhand product website, preferably with a new / fake account and through seven proxies.

And even then I'd be hesitant. Apparently the thief only got $225 for the macbook - probably some more from the jewelry and other stuff. Is $500 worth spending years in jail or whatever for?

Then again, $500 for some is a small fortune.

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Re:The Cost of Getting My Stolen Computer Back by DanBC on Wednesday January 07, 2015 @11:11AM (#8851310)
Maybe a third to a half of acquisitive crime is committed by people addicted to drugs.

These people just need things they can exchange for drugs; or things they can exchange for money for drugs.

Here's some UK Freedom of Information.

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/financial-cost-of...

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Re:The Cost of Getting My Stolen Computer Back by gambiting on Wednesday January 07, 2015 @10:37AM (#8851051)
The large "pawn" shops that most normal people frequent are probably quite strict about the seller letting them copy their ID, and they make sure the deal does not look sketchy. But I am sure that for every large second hand shop there are dozens of smaller ones hidden out of sight which will buy anything for cash, no questions asked.
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Re:The Cost of Getting My Stolen Computer Back by DanBC on Wednesday January 07, 2015 @11:13AM (#8851320)
That seems like some low hanging fruit for local police stations to target. How serious a crime is "dealing in stolen goods" in the US?
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Re:The Cost of Getting My Stolen Computer Back by shanemhansen on Wednesday January 07, 2015 @11:46AM (#8851525)
This has not been my experience at all (source: I was burglarized in Salt Lake City, Utah). While looking for my stolen goods at pawn shops, a homeless woman came in with a large backpack. The person working the desk clearly knew her. He asked her? "Who's bag is that marge?", to which she replied "It's yours now".

A pawn shops in Salt Lake City are filled with power tools from construction sites and car radios. Their entire business is heavily subsidized by crime.

My advice to readers is to write down the serial numbers of all your expensive goods. Pawn shops in Utah do have to check serial numbers against an online database of stolen goods.

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