Description: Roxanne Jackson, a working Worcester mother, stands in front of the Money Stop, a Worcester Pawn Shop on Main Street in downtown to protest the fact that her $1200 Dell laptop was stolen from her, and then sold by the thief to the Money Stop Pawn Shop for $80. Roxanne feels that the police, the District Attorney, and the proprietors of the Pawn Shop are indifferent to her plight. The issue is further complicated by the fact that the thief has since died and the D.A.’s office had lost the original receipt for the laptop, as well as a copy of the death certificate of the thief.
Roxanne is of the famous Worcester Jackson 5’s, Fred (Sanford) Jackson Sr.’s brood whose father was Worcester’s own version of the television shows metal recycler, and my family has known her family for years, her father was a Worcester icon who worked hard and raised his children well. I believe her because I know her, and also because my own brother had a similar experience trying to reclaim stolen merchandise that had been sold for Pawn, ironically at the very same Pawn Shop. He also got nowhere with his complaint to the Worcester Police Department or the Central District Court here in Worcester, Massachusetts USA.
The Law states that property sold into pawn that is identified as stolen is to be returned to the owner upon verification of ownership and the Pawn Shop is out of luck for having bought stolen merchandise in the first place. If I know my Law sufficiently that is. The reality in Worcester is that very little stolen merchandise is ever returned to its rightful owner. If people did not buy stolen merchandise, there would be fewer thieveries. We need to rethink our policies on Pawn Shops and make it more difficult for thieves to sell stolen merchandise in them. I am sure that when the record of that one thief’s sales is checked that it should have raised a red flag with the “Money Stop”.
The result of Roxanne’s protest is that the owner of the pawn shop is being charged by the Worcester Police for a number of offenses. The pawn shop tried to get Roxanne to accept another laptop in place of hers if she put down the signs she and her son David were holding and went away, but Roxanne was not hearing that. She is pressing charges against the owner on her principles. We all need to rethink the issue of stolen merchandise, and make it a habit not to buy loot offered for sale cheap by shady characters to help take a bite out of crime before you end up being the next victim like Roxanne was.
This story is an exclusive for the Worcester Herald, you saw it here first.
