MYRTLE BEACH, SC (WBTW) – In an effort to fight crime, Horry County Council made changes to an ordinance that regulates pawn shops.
Horry County Police say the new law has made a big difference in the number of stolen goods successfully returned.
Police say in the first three months of 2015 there were only 16 recoveries of stolen goods, but since the new rules went into place in March there have been 100 recoveries.
That’s a nearly a 60% increase, but some local pawn shops say the new rules are a hassle and hurt their business.
“It’s just creating a lot of work for us,” said Douglas Gardner of The Pawn Shop in Myrtle Beach.
Gardner says the pawn shop regulations passes the work onto the shops themselves, “its taken the work load off the police and I get that part.”
The law requires pawn shops in the county to file their inventory daily and in electronic format.
That information includes a description, as well as the item’s make model and serial number, a photo and information on the customer, in case an item is found to be stolen.
“I have to scan his ID, take a photograph of him, his fingerprint and all of that equipment we were required to buy,” said Gardner.
Under the previous law, pawn shop owners were only required to file a paper report with information on the item along with the customer’s ID.
It was also required weekly as opposed to daily. Gardner says the extra work forces him to turn away business.
“Sometimes we simply won’t take the loan because of the added work and when we don’t do a loan, that’s income we’re not getting,” said Gardner.
He adds that not giving out those pawns impacts working people who rely on small loans to get by from time to time.
“It’s a dissadvantage to the customer because if they need that little bit of extra money until the next pay day they can’t get it,” he said.
Still, Gardner complies with police in reporting the items and he understands the need for regulation, however he feels like filing tickets should be enough.
“They could still get the recovery on the item but it’s gonna take their man power to check the pawn tickets,” he said.
Horry County Police point to the new law as a success, in 2015 they say $156,321 in stolen property recovered from pawn shops, compared to only $60,000 in 2014.