News 12's Randy Golson has more in our top local story. Ten on both of them, Yup. The new law would force customers like Roy Leroy here, to leave a thumb print with items for which they get 25 dollars or more. It would make it easier for police to identify him as the person who pawned the articles. Chattanooga police say the current system of tracking stolen items to pawn shops takes too long.
Pawn brokers have forty eight hours before they even have to report pawns and purchases to police.
Customers only have to show a picture ID, which police say can often be fake. The new law would require a thumbprint as well as faster action by the pawn broker. Police say that would give them a chance to recover the item from the pawn shop before it gets sold. News 12 went to five separate pawn shops and at each one the owner declined to comment on camera. Police say in the year 2000 they recovered 246 stolen items from local Pawn shops.