Our pawn shop has signs all over the place that say “No loaded guns.” A customer comes in and pulls a pistol out of his waistband, with a finger on the trigger and barrel pointed at my belly.

Customer: “How much will you give me for this?”

Me: “Is that loaded?”

Customer: “Yeah.”

I grab it out of his hand and say… a lot of profanity. I clear the gun and tell him:

Me: “I’m keeping your ammo.”

Customer: “Why ya trippin’, bro?”

How I didn’t pistol whip him is beyond me. He didn’t walk out of there with it at least! When he came to pick it up, I reminded him that he needed a background check and he flipped out again.

Related:
On The Need For Gun Control

Our store regularly lists things on Craigslist. We have a really nice chainsaw that we’re selling. We put it on Craigslist at closing one day, and when we all come into work, we have about twelve replies from people wanting to buy it.

We copy-paste the same reply to everyone basically saying it is first come, first serve.

The first guy that shows up kicks the tires for a good fifteen minutes, which is really annoying everyone. The saw runs great and is in like-new condition, but…

Customer: *Complaining tone* “I can’t run a compression test on it, so you should give me a discount since it might have a weak motor.”

Owner: “It’s already quite significantly discounted.”

Customer: “Yeah… I don’t know… I think you need to go lower for me since it’s used.”

After a few more minutes of arguing, another customer walks in.

New Customer: “Do you still have the saw?”

He then sees it on the counter and puts the full asking price on the table in cash without even asking to test it out.

Owner: *To the first customer* “You going to pay asking price for this? Yes or no?”

Customer: “Uh… I don’t know—”

Owner: *To the new customer* “It’s yours.” 

The first customer swore at the owner, slammed our door open while walking out, and peeled out of our parking lot in his car.

I was waiting for my girlfriend to finish work at a pawn shop. I was chatting with her manager about customer service when a young man walked in with a pair of shoes.

Customer: “I’d like to sell these [Brand] shoes.”

Girlfriend: “Okay. Do you have the box and documents?”

Customer: “No, the guy who was here last time told me I could sell them for $50.”

Manager: “Sorry, we won’t accept [Brand] shoes without paperwork since there are too many fakes on the market.”

Customer: “That’s f****** ridiculous! You’re gonna lose out on $1,000 shoes?!”

Manager: “I mean, you wanted $50 for them. Kinda suspicious, don’t you think?”

The man then turned in a huff and left.

To make ends meet while getting my degree, I used to work at a pawn shop as a sort of cashier. Due to how laws used to work, there was a six-month time limit for keeping items, and once those were up, you had three options: pay off both the loaned money and the interest matured on it; pay stocking fees and interests; or let it be auctioned off.

More often than not, people were understanding of this and paid off their payment, or at least didn’t complain about their things being auctioned off.

Most.

One slow day, I was at the till. An older woman approached me with a piece of paper and unfolded it in front of me.

Woman: “Good day. I’m here to pick back up my [item].”

Me: “Sure thing. Can you please give me your ID card and storage ticket?”

The woman started rummaging in her purse until she first produced her driver’s license and then her ID, and then pointed at the folded sheet.

Woman: “Here we go. The first ticket got waterlogged, but thankfully, I got it photocopied the first time.”

I was a bit hesitant, but I decided that it was going to be good enough. I looked at the ticket: the name matched the ID… but the pawn had been done eight months prior.

Me: “Hang on. I’m going to check in the back.”

The woman’s face immediately soured, scoffing.

Woman: “All right, go check in the back if you have to.”

I did go back to the back, where the storage room was, and went looking for the storage guy.

Me: “Hey, [Storage Guy], do we still have [item number]?”

Storage Guy: “Pretty sure we auctioned them a few days ago, but let me check on the logs.”

The logs confirmed his suspicions. I sighed as I went back.

Me: “Ma’am, we sold it some days ago.”

She frowned deeply and then looked at me in a strange way.

Woman: “What do you mean?”

Me: “You haven’t paid off the pawn loan, and you didn’t renew it, either. Sorry, you should’ve gotten the notice about that in the mail a few months ago.”

Woman: *Shouting* “I haven’t gotten any letters! I demand my [item] back!

Me: “Calm down, ma’am.”

Woman: “Calm down?! You’ve just stolen from me because I didn’t get some f****** piece of paper in my mail saying I was supposed to pay some extortion payment!”

Me: “It’s the law, ma’am.”

The woman slammed her fist on the counter, making me back off and the register teeter on the edge.

Woman: “I have never heard of such a law! I want my [item] back!”

Me: “W-we can’t do that, we really can’t. I’m sorry, but your item has been auctioned off. We can check if—”

Woman: “I’ll call the tax police, and you will give me my things back! You can’t steal from me!”

At that point, I knew there was no winning this, and I was more than a little scared.

Me: “I’m going to get the manager; you can talk with him.”

Woman: “You’d better! I’m not going to leave until I get it all back!”

I called my manager, and he told me to go help out in the back. Ultimately, the lady didn’t get what she wanted and left only when it was closing time. The resulting visit from the tax police a few days later didn’t change matters at all. I don’t know if the lady got in trouble for wasting the police’s time!

Related:
Don’t Be A Pawn In Her Game

Customer: “I thought I wouldn’t have to do a background check. Isn’t this a pawn shop?!”

Me: “It’s also not the early 1960s. Everyone fills out the form. Even me.”