Aurora boosts pawnshop requirements

Aurora aldermen unanimously approved an updated ordinance that requires pawnbrokers and stores selling secondhand goods to upload information about each transaction to an online database.

The ordinance, adopted Tuesday night, becomes effective in 30 days to give Aurora store owners time to adjust to the requirement of uploading information to LeadsOnline, police Cmdr. Paul Nelson said.

“We want to track (stolen items) to control crime without having any undue effect on legitimate businesses,” he said.

By the end of July, secondhand stores must upload at least daily an image of a photo identification card for each person buying or selling an item, as well as a photo and description of each item and the time of the transaction. Exempt are stores such as the Salvation Army that take donations and then resell the goods, according to the ordinance.

People who steal things wouldn’t turn around and donate them, Nelson said, so stores that receive donations don’t need to record information about their transactions.

“There is no reason for us to regulate that,” he said.

For stores not following Aurora’s current ordinance, which requires a written record of information about secondhand transactions to be provided each day, adhering to the new regulation will be “a huge change,” Nelson said.

But for Fast Cash and Pawn, 1669 Montgomery Road, it will be business as usual, said Ray Lualhati, one of the owners of the family operated shop. The pawnshop already requires sellers and buyers to provide photo identification, already snaps photos of items bought and sold, and already posts it all on LeadsOnline, Lualhati said.

“It doesn’t matter to us because we do it anyway,” Lualhati said. “It’s actually a really good tool ... We actually like it.”