The Return Of Chainsaw Man

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.