I live in a very small town - around 1500 ppl. A couple of months ago when I decided to pursue this as a hobby I talked to some of my friends to see if they had any broken gold jewelry and I had my mom put the word out among her friends that if they had any I’d be happy to buy it as long as we could agree on a fair price.
Well, anyone who has lived in a small town knows how news travels. A couple of days ago a guy that I had gone to grade school and high school with stopped by and said he heard I was buying gold jewelry. He had about an ounce, one thing led to another, and I ended up buying it for about 60% of spot which is pretty close to the same he’d get at a pawn shop.
After he left, I remembered that I heard a while back that he was known to steal things to feed his drug habit. Now, whether this stuff is stolen I have no idea. But looking at it from a thief’s perspective, that’s the perfect way to offload jewelry that you steal since I’m not a pawn shop I don’t have to keep records.
So here’s my questions...I know the chief of police so taking it up there and showing it to him wouldn’t be a problem at all. I know I wouldn’t be charged with receiving stolen property but what would you guys do? If I do it and it is stolen, there goes my money out the window. On the other hand, simply in terms of morally speaking the answer is to let the authorities know. But I have to admit I am kind of torn.
Has anyone ran into anything similar?
Well, anyone who has lived in a small town knows how news travels. A couple of days ago a guy that I had gone to grade school and high school with stopped by and said he heard I was buying gold jewelry. He had about an ounce, one thing led to another, and I ended up buying it for about 60% of spot which is pretty close to the same he’d get at a pawn shop.
After he left, I remembered that I heard a while back that he was known to steal things to feed his drug habit. Now, whether this stuff is stolen I have no idea. But looking at it from a thief’s perspective, that’s the perfect way to offload jewelry that you steal since I’m not a pawn shop I don’t have to keep records.
So here’s my questions...I know the chief of police so taking it up there and showing it to him wouldn’t be a problem at all. I know I wouldn’t be charged with receiving stolen property but what would you guys do? If I do it and it is stolen, there goes my money out the window. On the other hand, simply in terms of morally speaking the answer is to let the authorities know. But I have to admit I am kind of torn.
Has anyone ran into anything similar?