Sting leads to pawnbroker’s arrest

Honolulu police are using the arrest of a man suspected of fencing stolen goods for money and illegal drugs as an opportunity to publicize their push for laws designed to make pawn and secondhand dealers more accountable for merchandise they buy and sell.

Waikiki resident Luke Warner, 45, was arrested at about 5:35 p.m. Thursday in the parking lot of the McDonald’s restaurant on Keeaumoku Street.

Police believe that Warner, a licensed pawnbroker and secondhand dealer for just over a year, operated Careful Concepts out of his car, his 34th-floor Hawaiian Monarch Hotel home and the hotel’s lobby.

HPD Chief Louis Kealoha said Warner was arrested after a two-month investigation that involved the help of city prosecutors.

"Officers conducted an undercover operation which the male (Warner) paid cash for, or traded drugs for, items which he believed were stolen," Kealoha said. Among the items were jewelry, a flat-screen television and a .45-caliber semiautomatic handgun. Among the items seized as evidence were about $20,000 in crystal meth­am­pheta­mine and highly sought prescription drugs including oxycodone and a generic form of Viagra, and about $40,000 in $100 bills.

Warner is being held pending 12 charges including meth­am­pheta­mine trafficking, theft and being a felon in possession of a firearm.

He is expected to be charged sometime today. City Prosecutor Keith Kane­shiro said he supports HPD’s renewed focus on tracking stolen merchandise.

The department recently began stepping up random inspections of Oahu’s roughly 60 licensed pawnbrokers and 220 secondhand dealers, Kealoha said. A pawnbroker loans money to customers who leave property as collateral. A secondhand dealer buys previously owned articles for future resale. Most pawnbrokers are also secondhand dealers.

"A majority of property stolen on Oahu ends up in these pawnshops and secondhand dealers," said Police Chief Louis Kealoha. "Better regulation, enforcement and a computerized pawn tracking system will result in an increase in the amount of stolen property recovered."

Kealoha and Maj. Rich Robinson, who heads HPD’s Criminal Investigations Division, said they will make a push at the state and city levels for laws they believe would make it easier for police to spot and track fenced items.

One change in the law HPD wants is to require that pawnbrokers and secondhand dealers use a computerized tracking system for all pawn transactions, making such information readily available to police.

"It’s much more restrictive, but I think it pre­sents a very fair balance between allowing a business to conduct a legitimate business while also providing protection for people who’ve had their property stolen," Robinson said.

John Spiker, president of the Hawaii Pawn Brokers Association, said his group of about 30 pawn dealers statewide supports HPD’s efforts to uphold laws and applauds police action against unscrupulous merchants who make law-abiding businesses look bad.

"HPD does a great job, and they did a great job with this arrest," said Spiker, owner of A All Hawaii Gold & Silver Co. in Kaimuki for more than 30 years.

"If computerization (of transactions) will help HPD, we’re interested in it if it’s reasonable and if it’s effective," Spiker said, noting that there would be a cost to pawn and secondhand dealers.

His industry is among the most regulated in the state, he said, noting that pawn and secondhand brokers are required to ask for and record a government-issued ID for anyone they do business with, as well as a fingerprint from those from whom they purchase.

He noted that the recent arrest involves a suspect who did not operate a legitimate storefront.

"It’s the people who (operate) at swap meets, parking lots and online — they’re doing whatever they want," Spiker said. "That’s a big difference from someone who rents a retail storefront and advertises."

Robinson also said potential consumers should be wary of people wishing to conduct business transactions in parking lots.

"The more reputable a place looks, probably the more reputable a place is," Robinson said. He said he did not believe the suspect in the latest case was attempting to make transactions online.