Skip to content
Search AI Powered

Latest Stories

Pawn Shop Employees Divulge The Most Illegal Things People Have Brought In

To be in the business of buying and selling, one must be nimble. Head on a swivel, a pawn shop owner hunts for value in the items that others gloss over.

But no matter how good you are at crunching the numbers, a stolen military weapon is simply off the table.


The pawn shop owners and employees of Reddit are full of wild examples of stolen items coming through the front door.

Some of these stories end with a shopkeeper surprised to receive a call from the cops. In this case, the item was so strange that assessing its legality was the least of concerns.

But the far more popular experience is turning down an item so obviously stolen that the seller is clearly a loose cannon, and therefore needs to be chucked form the store as soon as possible.

Manas_Das24 asked, "Pawn shop owners, what was the most illegal thing a customer had brought to your shop?"

Jig's Up

"Worked at a gun shop and a shady looking guy brought in a few pairs of night vision googles, like high end military grade PVS-14 night vision googles."

"Ask him why he was selling them. 'Oh, I just don't need them anymore.' Cool man, do you mind if I call the company real quick and run the numbers? Sometimes this stuff is stolen property."

"And as soon as I said that he jumped across the counter, grabbed the googles and bolted for the door."

-- atomiccheesegod

Re-Gifted Laptops

"A guy brought in a stack of like 15 laptops that all said property of city Public School right on the top of each one."

"He then threatened to shoot me when I told him to get out." -- 3leftturn

"Not an owner, but I got a call from a pawn shop saying that one of my at-home employees tried to sell her work computer."

"It has my company's logo and contact info right on it plain as day. How stupid can some people be?" -- VeeKam

The Least Secure Security Deposit

"A man brought in a bag of cocaine and asked if I would buy it then resell it back to him in a couple of days." -- Moist_mop

"Mind if I call in a buddy? He's an expert in cocaine." -- RickGrimesLol

"That guy was so high he got the formula backward. You're supposed to get the pawn money to buy the drugs, not pawn the drugs to get the money." -- ProfessorZhirinovsky

Local Militia Would've Paid a Pretty Penny for it

"A guy literally brought in an RPG."

"He was doing yard work for this old lady whose husband had passed. She gave it to him for doing some yard work not realizing it was live and active."

"The guy was career military and after the bomb squad came and disabled it, they went to her house and found a trove of similarly very illegal military-grade weapons."

-- bisk0ot

Too Good to be True

"We had a couple come in to pawn their backhoe over the weekend (happens a lot) and brought their bill of sale. They wanted a simple $1k loan which wasn't bad considering how much it was worth."

"No more than 30 minutes later cops are there with the owner. Apparently they worked for him and went and pawned all of his industrial equipment."

-- SupriseRape

But I Don't Want It Anymore!

"A friend of mine owns a pawn shop, and one day a dude walks in with a cardboard box filled to the top with his own shit. He claims that it's magic and my friend cuts him off right there and kicks him out."

"As he is walking out he drops the box on accident, gets all of his shit on the floor, sees the mess he's made, stares at the horrid pile of shit for a couple of seconds, and runs out of the shop."

"My friend never got his name, and never saw him again. The smell would proceed to linger in the shop for a good month after it was cleaned up."

-- CanadaMan01

Cultural Differences

"Literally had a customer come in and say, 'Hi, I've just stolen this phone off my sister, how much will you give me for it?' "

"Had another customer bring in a gun and a crossbow, that was weird (I'm in the UK, this is not a normal thing)." -- ashcymru84

"This might sound ridiculous, but can you guys not just buy a gun at a supermarket?" -- dandydiehl

"911 What is your Return Policy?"

"Buddy of mine worked at a pawn shop for a few years, they had a guy try to sell them a police walkie talkie, like straight stolen from a car but with the battery taken out."

"They told him to get f*cked and called the cops. I believe they picked the guy up a few hours later."

-- _leetster

Gold is Gold

"I don't know if it's necessarily illegal but one time I guy brought me a handful of human teeth with bloody roots and gold filings. He wanted me to extract the gold. I said no thanks bro." -- sickofmasshysteria

"Definitely not his teeth." -- Ballsforbrains

Think of the Power

"A locksmith machine, the one that makes key copies. We didn't know it was illegal until we try to put it out for sale." -- carlosdekansas


Do you have something to confess to George? Text "Secrets" or "🤐" to +1 (310) 299-9390 to talk him about it.

More from Trending/best-of-reddit

Chelsea Handler unleashed one of the night’s most brutal roasts on Tony Hinchcliffe during Netflix’s The Roast of Kevin Hart.
Netflix / The Roast of Kevin Hart

Chelsea Handler Destroys MAGA Comedian With Hilariously Brutal Jokes At Kevin Hart's Roast—And We're Cheering

Chelsea Handler brought the heat to Netflix’s The Roast of Kevin Hart Sunday night, and Tony Hinchcliffe ended up taking some of the night’s most brutal hits.

Handler wasted little time zeroing in on Hinchcliffe, the controversial comedian who has repeatedly sparked backlash over jokes about George Floyd and Puerto Rico. She delivered a string of savage punchlines that left the audience roaring while the comic sat visibly unimpressed.

Keep ReadingShow less
Dave Coulier
Rob Latour/Variety/Penske Media/Getty Images; @dcoulier/Instagram

Dave Coulier Opened Up About Why He Looks And Sounds Different After Cancer Battle—And Fans Are Heartbroken For Him

Dave Coulier has been well-known for years for playing the lovable, quirky, and bubbly Uncle Joey Gladstone on Full House, and in the past two years, he's become even more loved for carrying that same bubbly personality through multiple cancer treatments.

In 2024, Coulier was diagnosed with stage three non-Hodgkin lymphoma after seeing a doctor about symptoms from a persistent cold. Coulier mentioned then how quickly his life changed, but how the prognosis was generally always promising.

Keep ReadingShow less
Martin Short; Katherine Short and Martin Short
CBS Sunday Morning/YouTube; Gregg DeGuire/FilmMagic

Martin Short Just Opened Up For The First Time About His Daughter's Death—And Fans Are Heartbroken

Content warning: mental illness, suicide

Martin Short has experienced tremendous loss in his life, the latest of which was daughter Katherine's suicide at the age of 42, reportedly after years of struggling with several mental health disorders.

Keep ReadingShow less
Bill Nye
Kristina Bumphrey/Variety via Getty Images

Bill Nye In Awe Over How Much His New Wax Figure At Madame Tussauds Looks Like Him—And Fans Are Impressed

Usually when a Madame Tussaud's wax figure shocks everyone, it's for all the wrong reasons. But for once, it's for the right ones!

Scientist Bill Nye, aka Bill Nye The Science Guy, just unveiled his new wax figure at Madame Tussauds New York, and well ... it looks exactly like him!

Keep ReadingShow less
Stephen and Katie Miller
Kristina Bumphrey/Variety via Getty Images

Katie Miller Blasted After Lecturing Women About Their 'Biological Destiny' In Mother's Day Post

Katie Miller—former Trump administration member turned Elon Musk employee and wife of White House Deputy Chief of Staff for Policy, Homeland Security Advisor, and unofficial Reich Minister of Public Enlightenment and Propaganda Stephen Miller—stepped in it again online with her Mother’s Day Lebensborn propaganda post.

The Lebensborn ("Fount of Life") program was an SS-initiated organization founded by Heinrich Himmler, operating in Nazi Germany and Nazi occupied territories, to increase the birth rate of "Aryan" children by calling on unmarried women to do their duty for the Fatherland and become baby factories, pumping out as many children as possible to be placed in proper Nazi households.

Keep ReadingShow less