I worked at a pawn shop for a couple of years. We had a customer pawn a chainsaw, which turned up stolen and was confiscated by the police, which caused the store to lose money and the police to be aware that he is a known thief.

He came back something close to three months later to pawn something else. I didn’t recognize him right away.

Me: “Have you pawned anything here before?”

Customer: “Yes.”

Me: “Under what last name?”

Customer: “[Last Name].”

I entered it into our computer system, which promptly said STOLEN.

Me: *Thinking.* “Really? You came back here?”

I gave my boss (it’s literally a two-person store) our not very frequently used signal to discreetly call the police.

Meanwhile, I started acting like I was working on his loan and stalled a bit. 

Just a couple of minutes later, a couple of police cars pulled up (neighborhoods with pawn shops get a lot of patrols), and the officers quietly walked in. He turned around, saw them, and immediately gave up.

I didn’t really have to say anything to him. The handcuffs spoke for themselves.

I work in a pawn shop. A customer is trying to sell them some “ancient coins”.

Me: “I can’t take these coins.”

Customer: “Why not?”

Me: “They’re fake.”

Customer: “How can you tell! You can’t know that.”

Me: “They’re dated 100 BC.”

Customer: “Yeah, that means they’re really old.”

Me: “Are you really going to make me explain why I’m dubious about buying a coin apparently minted by someone who knew that Christ was coming a hundred years before he was born?”

Customer: “…you could sell them as prophetic coins!”

Me: “Please leave.”

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.