Pawnshops and iPods

Last year, while living in Tulsa my wife and I were broken into and my iPod was stolen. About three months ago, I received a letter from Tulsa PD that my iPod was identified. Pawn shops in Oklahoma have to register all items into a centralized database by serial number (if available); when my iPod's serial number was entered it triggerd a stolen item report to the Tulsa PD. We executed the various affidavits and designated a former student to recover the property. She had to go to court to get an order to recover the property and this is what she said about the process:

Apparently Tulsa releases stolen property once a month. There were about 12 people there wanting to recover. The judge called each name individually…asked if they were there to pick up “x” (mostly GPS’s by the way), whether there was anyone there from “x” pawn shop or if the individual who pawned it was there (there wasn’t for anyone), then said she’d sign the order and to sit down. This took about 15 minutes. Then we were instructed to go to the hallway while we waited for our paperwork. That took about 5 minutes. Then off to the pawn shop (apparently Tulsa does it this way because there’s no room in their property room). The pawn shop, as you know, was in north Tulsa. It was pouring down rain that day so it “wasn’t very busy” (apparently pawn shops are local hangouts). The manager took my paperwork then went looking for it…this took about 30 minutes! I was worried that he had sold it since he kept saying he couldn’t find it. But, after enough searching he found it. It was all wrapped up in cellophane with a City of Tulsa sticker on it stating it was stolen property. He checked my ID and I was on my way. Apparently, if it was a gun that was stolen they have to verify that you can legally be in possession of a fire arm before they can release it.

Pretty much uneventful, but interesting nonetheless.

1-201's Buyer in the Ordinary Course exclusion rule in action! Kudos to Sandy Cooper for braving the pawn shop and the courts to recover my iPod. I am curious what music, if any, is left after sixteen months....

Update Sandy also noted that the pawn broker checked the serial number on the pleadings meticulously, which caused me to remember how we came across the serial number. We contacted Apple Inc. who had the serial number. Even though Apple was more than willing to give us the serial number, they were not willing to let us know who reregistered the iPod. I suppose I can imagine why Apple might not be willing to police its stolen merchandise.