THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, August 27, 1995 TAG: 9508250202
SECTION: VIRGINIA BEACH BEACON PAGE: 04 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY GREG BURT, CORRESPONDENT
LENGTH: Medium: 87 lines
Overcome with emotion, Nancy Porter tearfully relayed her misfortune to Virginia Beach police officer Kevin S. Rowland.
She had just discovered that thousands of dollars in jewelry was missing from her son's pawn shop, where she also worked. A loss like this was sure to put Howard's Pawn Shop, a 4-year-old enterprise, out of business.
Porter was fairly sure she knew who stole the merchandise, but she had no way to prove it, or so she thought.
She was about to learn an important lesson about how businesses and residents can help police recover stolen merchandise in the event they become crime victims.
Officer Rowland patiently listed all the missing jewelry and lent an empathetic ear to Porter's plight.
``He was very, very understanding because I was all to pieces by that point. . . . He was a little jewel,'' Porter recalled.
It didn't take long for the police to jump into action. Two days after her initial report, Porter got a call from the Police Department's Second Precinct. They had already found a large portion of the jewelry, including her most valuable piece, a diamond ring worth $5,000. A day later, the suspect, Jill S. Price, was picked up and charged with two counts of larceny. By the next day, Porter had her jewelry back in the pawn shop safe.
``They worked so fast. They saved my business,'' said Porter.
Lamenting over how the local police never get the recognition they deserve, Porter couldn't express enough appreciation about the Police Department's work. She also wanted to give special recognition to Lt. Art J. Guertin, whose personal involvement in the case she believes was critical.
``They did an excellent job, and I don't ever want to hear anybody say anything against my Virginia Beach police officers,'' Porter said.
While police appreciated Porter's gratitude, Officer William Nielsen says the key to the quick recovery of the merchandise and the arrest was due to a pawn shop law on the books in Virginia since the late 1940s.
State law requires all pawn shops, second-hand stores and precious metal dealers to file daily reports to local police departments concerning all merchandise bought or taken in as pawns. These reports not only record the model number, serial number and description of the item being bought, but also list the seller's address, social security number, birthday and a personal description. With this information, police departments can track down stolen merchandise and find criminals quickly.
Nielsen, one of two police officers who work for the crime analysis pawn shop unit in Virginia Beach, received the list of Porter's stolen jewelry on July 24, a Monday morning.
Lacking serial numbers, jewelry is usually harder to find, Nielsen said, but because Porter had the names of the possible suspects the computer search was simpler.
Nielsen checked his computer system in Virginia Beach, then he called neighboring police pawn shop units in Norfolk, Portsmouth, Suffolk, Chesapeake, Newport News and Hampton to see if the suspects had sold anything there.
By Monday afternoon, the names of Jill S. Price and her roommate were found at one pawn shop in Virginia Beach and two others in Norfolk. Price was an acquaintance of Porter's who was left alone near the pawn shop safe the week before. Price's roommate's name is being withheld and has yet to be charged with a crime.
Over the past year, Nielsen has seen an increase in the property that he has been able to recover not only for pawn shops and other merchants, but for residential victims as well. He attributes this to the use of the computer database program FoxPro, which has enhanced his department's tracking capabilities.
One problem that continues to make Nielsen's job more difficult, however, is the vague descriptions of stolen property that he gets from victims of theft. Nielsen said people call up and say, ``I had a GE television or a Samsung microwave.''
Without model and serial numbers, tracking down merchandise is difficult, he said. Part of the problem, he explained, is that people think manufacturers print serial numbers on the product instructions. This is usually never the case, he said.
If a robbery does occur, Nielsen advises people to immediately call the police and give a complete description of the stolen items, including the model and serial numbers.
Detective J.R. Pickell, who led the investigation into the Howard's Pawn Shop larceny, also recommends photographing your most valuable possessions. And for jewelry, having the penny weight of each item goes a long way in the identification process, he adds.
``If we can identify it, then that's half the battle,'' Pickell said. by CNB