Time period: 1980-1995
Premise: A pawn shop owner has devised what he thinks is an unbeatable system for raking in tens of thousands of dollars a year illegally in a way that is unlikely to be discovered:
- A truly legal and profitable pawn shop- no fencing of items stolen by others
- Cooperation with local police in 'sting' operations to catch local thieves and burglars
- His own built-in master burglar + apprentice to steal select, small high-value items (jewelry, coins, small valuable collectibles)
- Not allowed to carry guns or other weapons that might get used in the heat of the moment
- No 'big spending' by boss or subordinates of the illegal gains
- Only targeting homes and businesses where he has enough info to guarantee they can get in and out quickly without alerting the owner or the authorities
- Not hitting the same Texas county more than once every 24 months (in theory, 400+ counties to choose from)
- Stolen items are kept in a hidden location in the pawn shop building where they are not likely to be discovered
- Items are fenced in Japan through former military compatriot who married into a Japanese family owning an import/export business
- no local sales
- Japanese family believes the items to be legally acquired (false paperwork provided)
Questions:
Looking only at these factors, how well thought out is their scheme?
- Were Texas state, county and local criminal activity databases sufficient, accurate and consistently used enough to pick up patterns of criminal activity and to alert authorities?
- Were police trained to look for such patterns utilizing whatever data sources were available?
- Apart from the FBI and the IRS, how are these crooks most likely to trip themselves up and get caught?
