Aurora police want to update “pawnbrokers” ordinance

Stolen stuff is tough to track.

But Aurora police have an idea that may make investigating the whereabouts of pilfered items a bit easier.

Police proposed an ordinance update to city aldermen Tuesday, saying it would help investigators search for the whereabouts of stolen items by requiring pawn brokers, secondhand stores and scrap dealers to report information about each item they buy or sell to an online database.

The proposal, which replaces the city's previous “Pawnbrokers and Secondhand Dealers” ordinance, extends the businesses covered to include cash for gold stores, eBay transactions and traveling secondhand stores.

The database, called LeadsOnline, can be searched at any time by item or by the name of a suspect, Cmdr. Paul Nelson said. That's a marked improvement from the handwritten records required under the previous ordinance, which are tedious to sift through.

Not to mention only one business, S&S Metal Recyclers II, 336 E. Sullivan Road, adheres to the current ordinance, according to police records.

“I doubt very many if any crimes were solved based on the information we currently bring in,” Nelson said.

But he's more optimistic for the likelihood of tracking down criminals and stolen goods under the proposed ordinance.

Several suburbs — including Buffalo Grove, Crystal Lake, Elmhurst, Mundelein, Naperville, Oak Brook, Vernon Hills and Wheeling — already require secondhand dealers to report transactions to LeadsOnline.

Mayor Tom Weisner said the stronger ordinance will not only help Aurora police recover stolen items and discourage future burglaries, but also may assist authorities in neighboring towns.

“It's going to finally address pawn and resale on a regional level,” Nelson said. “It has to be a regional approach in order to work.”

The ordinance requires junk and scrap collection vehicles to be licensed and marked. If officers see an unmarked scrap collection truck, they can ask the driver for a business license, which is required to be in the vehicle, officer Nikole Petersen said.

Police will not issue warnings to scrap collection cars found without markings, Petersen said, but will issue a ticket with a fine of $500 for the first offense and $1,000 for subsequent offenses, according to the ordinance.

“At this point, we need to be hitting every angle,” Alderman Scheketa Hart-Burns said.

Failing to comply with the ordinance could result in revocation of a business license, an offense punishable by arrest if a shop keeps operating.

S&S Metal Recyclers II will have to buy some new software to upload transaction information to LeadsOnline, Chief Operating Officer Kevin Podraza said.

The ordinance requires stores like S&S to upload an image of a photo identification card for the person buying or selling each item, along with the time of the transaction, a description of the item and a photo of it.

“If you're running a dirty business in Aurora and you're knowingly conducting business in stolen goods, you're not going to be able to do business,” Nelson said. “You're going to have to get clean or get out.”