5 stolen tubas in one pawn shop?

[RossK]

Came across this on the net regarding tuba thievery at my old high school. It seems to me that the pawn shop should bear part of the blame for this situation.....

LPD says Lufkin man instrumental in theft of high school tubas
Lufkin (TX) Daily News, Aug 9, 2005

By ASHLEY COOK The Lufkin Daily News

Tuesday, August 09, 2005

It took a lot of brass for one former Lufkin high school band parent to allegedly steal and pawn nearly $15,000 in tubas, according to police.

Charles Ray Phillips, 52, was arrested by Lufkin Police on Wednesday and charged with state jail felony theft for allegedly having five tubas pawned between November 2003 and September 2004, according to an arrest affidavit.

Former [Lufkin High] band director Paul Najera reported the thefts after finding several tubas missing from the school's band hall, according to an arrest affidavit.

Phillips' daughter checked out one tuba and never returned it. An employee working at the family's former apartment complex discovered three empty tuba cases left behind after their eviction, the affidavit stated. Najera discovered another empty case in the band hall.

Serial numbers from five missing tubas matched those sold to Diboll High School by Insta Cash Pawn, according to the affidavit.

Three people named in the affidavit, including John Earl Armstrong, Kelly Kiambo and Christina Wood, pawned the instruments at the request of Phillips and his wife, who died in July 2004.

Total value of the pawned instruments was $14,385, according to the affidavit.

It is no laughing matter for the Diboll school district, which returned the instruments after discovering they were stolen. They're still out around $5,000 spent to buy the tubas, according to Superintendent Bobby Baker on Monday.

The Diboll High School band director was trying to get the most for his budget's money by buying the used instruments, Baker said. Purchasing used instruments is a common practice among schools, Baker said, for a great cost savings.

Diboll had earmarked the tubas for reserves, used to replace broken instruments as students needed them, he said.

They have enough tubas to begin the school year with, but replacing the lost money is another matter, Baker said. The district's insurance policy won't cover it, since the instruments weren't stolen from Diboll, he said.

"We don't know how we're going to recover that," Baker said.

David Sharp, Lufkin's superintendent, was not immediately available for comment Monday.

Ashley Cook's e-mail address is acook@coxnews.com.

[Lew]

Shouldn't the pawn shop return the High School's money if it turns out that they sold stolen goods? Why should they keep what was paid for something they didn't have the right to sell?

[Alex C]

STOLEN tubas at a pawn shop! Say it ain't so.

One of Ev Gilmore's prize Miraphone tubas was stolen once. Later a repairman called Ev and said the tuba was in his shop. Ev called in the cops; turned out that the buyer paid $750 for the tuba, the pawn shop paid less than $10 to the thief. The cops "encouraged" the pawn shop to repay the money to the buyer.

[Dan Schultz]

The laws vary somewhat from state to state but generally, the pawn shops are not responsible for goods they take in that may be stolen. Here in Southern Indiana, pawn shops make weekly reports to the local police department regarding things they take in to pawn. There is then a waiting period before items can be sold. The message here is to record the serial numbers of your horns, keep close track of your inventory, and notify the authorities quickly after discovering your loss. Now... it would be nice if ALL the law enforcement agencies worked together! Here... if an item is stolen in one county and pawned in another county, the records may or may not be shared.

[chronolith]

Were the tubas etched with "property of XYZ High School" or something similar? If so then there is the possibility that the pawn shop owner would have known the tubas were stolen, and therefore he could be responsible legally.

If not, then this is another sad case of the School District having to sue the thief himself for money/damages. As any good lawayer will tell you - it is useless to sue people who have no money. Sad.

As that band director, I would try to appeal to that pawn shop owner's sense of civic generosity and responsibility. Unless it can be proved that he/she knew it was stolen goods, there is not much else you could do.

[Uncle Buck]

Utah recently created a statewide pawnshop database (which my office now enforces), so any law enforcement official can access all pawnshop transactions statewide. There are penalties for any pawnshop that does not submit all of their transactions.

Just like with identity theft, if you have a horn stolen, the most important thing is to report it immediately, and get your serial number to a law enforcement agency.

[MaryAnn]

I think I'd better go home and record my serial numbers. Assuming my stable still has horses in it when I get home tonight.
MA

[Doug@GT]

The laws vary somewhat from state to state but generally, the pawn shops are not responsible for goods they take in that may be stolen.

While that may be true, it's a shame the shop owner won't take responsibility anyway. Something like, "I don't have to do this, but you are a school and this is probably taxpayer money...so I'll return it because I like to support my community."

No law required. Just some common decency.

[Lew]

While that may be true, it's a shame the shop owner won't take responsibility anyway. Something like, "I don't have to do this, but you are a school and this is probably taxpayer money...so I'll return it because I like to support my community."

When I've seen pawn shops move on to major thoroughfares in various parts of town, the tittie bars, drug/alcohol bums, and street whores are not far behind.

You forgot the check cashing places and furniture rental stores. They go hand in hand in these same areas.

[Chuck(G)]

I don't frequent pawn shops, but I have never heard of a tuba being hocked. Now, I know there are lots of things I've never heard of, so probably there are a few here and there. It seems to me that the pawn broker certainly should have smelled a rat when the second one came in, and to have 5 of them hocked without knowing they were hot is an insult to the intelligence of a half wit. The police should lean very hard on this creep by "mentioning" his activities indicate that he is a fence for stolen property and just may be prosecuted.

Hmmm, maybe not such a good idea, if you think about the sort of clientele a pawnbroker deals with. Branding him a fence might just get him more business than he can handle.

[Leland]

I don't frequent pawn shops, but I have never heard of a tuba being hocked.

You might not have been around here four years ago when mine showed up in a pawn shop after being stolen from my car.

The shop paid the thieves $500 for it, and a month later, it was posted on eBay with a buy-now price of $5600 (for the horn, that was the price I paid new; with the case, mouthpieces, tuner, etc., the whole shebang was worth about $6500).

I never heard if the cops went after the thieves themselves (they have more important things to worry about... seriously), but the shop was happy enough to wash its hands of stolen goods.