The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1894-08-13
PAWNSHOPS AS FENCES.
How They Form COnyelielCeS for
Thieves TO Land Their Plumber.

/ The Thieves Make for the Pawnshops
as Soon as They Are Loaded and
/ Have Little Trouble in DisposinR of
Their Stolen Goods-An Incident
! Showing How 1t Is Done-The Need
! for Additional Regulations for
/ Pawnshops.
An incident which goes to show the
/ grounds for the belief Of the city detec-
tives that some of the pawn shops serve
the thieves who infesJ the city to all in
tents and purposes as fences to dispose
of their stolen goods occurred night be
fore last.
The boarders in a house on Melon
ough street were at supper, when some
one was heard to go up the front steps
and open the door, and Immediately come
out again. One of the boarders who
had just finished his meal stepped to
the door to investigate, and saw a
negro going down the steps. He was
whlstliug in the most unConcerned man
ner and spoke to the young man as he
passed. The latter supposed from the
negrO's manner that he had come to the
door to deliver a bundle for some one in
the house. He noticed, however. that
he carried an umbrella under his
arm, and called out to those in the
dining room to know if they
had any umbrellas i'll the rack An in
VCstigation developed that two umbrellas
which had been placed in the rack only
short while before were missing. The
two young men who we're the sufferers
a fsg# F1 4 !
thief, but by this time he had disap-
peared.
SEARCHED THE PAwNsHoPs.
Concluding naturally that he had gone
TO a pawnshop with his plumber they
went to the neighborhood in which the
pawnshOps are situated ana made in
quirics. They were told by the proprie-
tor of one of the shops that he had taken
In several umbrellas, but when a request
was made by the young men
to be allowed to inspect those
which had been recently taken
in it was refused, the proprietor alleging
that he had taken in a number of UNI
brellas, and did not have time to exhibit
them. Finding argument useless the
young men left the place, and one of them
purchased a new umbrella to replace the
one he had lost The other returned to
the place and renewed his demand 10 be
d4tDNtu 70 ste me uUl DT6l1hS.
lie was more successful this time, and
the stock Of umbrellas shown him. Among
the very first handed out were the two
umbrellas which had been stolen only a
short while before. The pawnbroker
claimed that he had advanced Is cents
upon the umbrellas, which amount he de-
manded before delivering them. The
charge was paid. The thief had gone di-
rect from the house where he had stolen
IN - hV-hllac n n oh
A NEW ORDINANCE NEEDED,
Detective Bossell was spoken to about
the matter and said that he had heard of
many similar complaints. The detectives
are powerless, he said, in the matter of
compelling the pawn shops to keep within
the law in the conduct of their business.
we have urged that an ordinance be
passed by council compelling the pawn
shop keepers TO file with the police every
night after the close of their business
hours list of all articles taken in by
them during the day, with such descrip-
tion of the articles as will enable us to at
once identity any article the loss
OF which had been complained
of to us. This would be
great aid to the detectives in
tracing up stolen articles. 1t would also
enable us to detect any pawnbroker who
cO-operated with the thieves. we were
to catch a thief with a pawn ticket on
him for an article which had not been re-
ported to US we would have a case against
the pawnbroker at once
TEAR UP THEIR TICKETS.
"The white thieves usually tear up
their tickets after they have pawned
their plunder, but the negroes generally
keep them and try to dispose of them to
innocent parties. Macon and Augusta
have such ordinances regulating the
pawnshops. Not only that, but
we receive from the police of these
cities every week lists of watches and
jewelry which have been pawned in those
cities in order to enable us to discover if
any of the articles described have been
stolen from Savannah We have been
asked to reciprocate in this matter but
are unable to do so, because there is no
ordinance here compelling the pawnbro-
kers to furnish TO the police lists of arti-
Giles pawned with them.
The pawnbrokers tell a different story
and say that they do not receive articles
which they have reason to suspect are
| stolen and that when they recognize a
thief, they at once notify the police and
use every endeavor to have him arrested