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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Rising gold thefts prompt police to monitor sellers

Wisconsin city sees burglaries increase as all other crimes fall

Lynne Steren holds some of the jewelry that was returned to her after a new ordinance in a Milwaukee suburb helped track down the man who took it from her East Troy, Wis., home. Police not only recovered some of the items but had the name, address and photo of the man who had sold them – her stepdaughter’s boyfriend.  (Associated Press)
Carrie Antlfinger Associated Press

MILWAUKEE – Law enforcement and local governments are scrambling to shut down a shadow industry that has grown up around the booming cash-for-gold business nationwide: Thieves are snatching jewelry, then converting it into a quick payday at the shops.

Thousands of shops have opened to take advantage of high gold prices and hard economic times, and police in some cities have noticed an uptick in burglaries and thefts.

“Law enforcement is just swamped,” said Maureen Walter of the State Police in Maryland. “Business is booming. I guess that’s a good indication of how bad the economy is; for the most part these dealers are very, very busy.”

Concerned about a growing criminal trade, Milwaukee passed an ordinance this summer to help police spot stolen jewelry being sold before it was too late to recover. Other cities are rushing to take similar measures, finding that the usual methods for tracking stolen goods weren’t coping with the modern day gold rush.

Gold-buying businesses began proliferating when prices started rising in 2005, reaching more than $1,000 an ounce in 2009 and around $1,200 now. “Cash for Gold” billboards cropped up along highways, TV commercials urged watchers to mail in their gold for money and exchanges opened in unusual places like liquor stores and hair salons.

In Milwaukee alone, the number of businesses licensed to buy jewelry increased from 16 in 2007 to 59 last year. In Maryland, one of the states revising its enforcement, licensed vendors of precious metals more than doubled in the last two years to 545. The businesses include not only shops but gold-buying events at hotels or Tupperware-like parties in homes.

Local authorities couldn’t keep track of all the precious metals changing hands, and discovered that not all the sellers were people with jewelry they no longer wanted.

Police in Milwaukee said they caught several thieves and drug addicts who confirmed they were stealing jewelry to sell to the shops. No comprehensive statistics on gold or jewelry thefts nationwide are available, but burglaries increased about 4 percent overall in Milwaukee from 2007 to 2009, while all other crimes decreased – a pattern investigators linked in part to stolen gold.

“We opened the store and we had two people sitting outside, ‘Oh, we want to sell some gold,’ ” said Firdous Chandani, owner of Reflections Jewelry in Milwaukee. He said his shop has been buying about 350 grams of gold a day from people eager to take advantage of the high prices.