
NASSAU PAWN URGES PROPER MEASURES --Customers keep Nassau Pawn Shop on Bay Street busy. Owners work with police in setting surveillance cameras and urge regulation of the gold-buying industry which they fear could encourage criminal activity for those who do not keep records of sellers as the established store does.
|
Nassau, Bahamas - Less
than one month after it re-opened following a police raid that ended
with confiscated goods being returned to the store, a local pawn shop
has said the time has come to regulate the quickly growing gold-buying
industry in The Bahamas.
"Gold-buying
operations are springing up all over," said Corey Rolle, manager
of Nassau Pawn located at the eastern end of Bay Street. "Unfortunately,
many of these are temporary. Generally, they pay cash on the spot, there
are no records, the gold is melted down and since no one knows where
it came from or if it is stolen, there is no way to trace it or ever
return it to the rightful owner. Such quick-buy, no-records-kept businesses
can encourage theft. We know how often this can happen because we turn
down the majority of persons who come into Nassau Pawn where we will
not purchase anything without a photo ID of the seller."
Surveillance
cameras are also located inside the store that handles everything from
scooters to electronics.
According
to Rolle, the only way to stop what Nassau pawn called "a serious
threat to security and a tough challenge for law enforcement" is
to regulate the gold-buying industry.
"Legitimate
businesses have best practices standards and there is a very legitimate
side to the sale of luxury goods, including gold," said Rolle.
"But for the unsavory aspects of the exchange of gold for cash,
we at Nassau Pawn strongly urge officials to immediately consider legislation
similar to that which is in place in the U.K. and has allowed the industry
to serve the legitimate purpose for which it was originally designed.
We deal with people all the time who either need money more than they
need their electronic equipment or jewelry or tools or just no longer
have a use for them. Sometimes they have fallen on hard times but more
often than not, they just do not need an item any longer. A spouse has
passed away or a child has grown up and left home, a hundred different
reasons. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to see the difference between
the person who legitimately has an item for sale and the Joneser who
comes in carrying a $10,000 gold bracelet." By keeping a permanent
log of all sales -- and there have been thousands since they opened
in March -- Nassau Pawn said it is able to trace who brought merchandise
in and not only had a written record, but video, thanks to the assistance
of police who helped advise placement of surveillance cameras.
"The
more we do to establish credibility, the better it will be for those
businesses like ours that pay normal business expenses -- rent, National
Insurance, licensing fees -- and which have the measures in place to
discern between people who sell because they want to and people who
steal because they believe they need money fast and opportunity is as
close as a nearby mall or hall."