Jewelry returned after being stolen, pawned and sold | Bradenton Herald

MANATEE -- Something rare and dramatic occurred at Buccaneer Pawn Shop in the 3100 block of First Street at noon Thursday.

An East Manatee woman got back her 14-karat, Bismarck choker necklace in an emotional and improbable reunion after it had been stolen, pawned and sold.

“It’s a little bit of me that I got back,” said Liz Sullivan of Creekwood.

Sullivan has been pushing for tougher pawn shop regulations ever since the theft of roughly $20,000 worth of her jewelry from Jan. 2 to June 13, allegedly perpetrated by the woman dating her son.

Sullivan said she wants pawn shops to provide more accurate descriptions of items along with digital photographs.

But she never expected to see her second favorite piece again -- the Bismarck necklace with three bows -- because it had already been sold from the pawn shop and Florida law doesn’t require pawn customers to return stolen items, nor does it require pawn shops to contact them.

But in Sullivan’s case, a determined sheriff’s office detective, Rebecca Angel, teamed with a sympathetic pawn shop manager, Jose Ybarra of Buccaneer Pawn, and the customer who bought the chain was not only called, but turned out to be touched by the story.

Ybarra said that it was the first time his pawn shop had ever called a customer back to return an item discovered to be stolen, and the first time an item was actually sold back to the original owner.

“This has never happened before,” Ybarra said Thursday. “But the way we feel is that this was the right thing. It should be back with its rightful owner.”

Sullivan had to pay the pawn shop $180, the amount the pawn shop gave Bradenton’s Amber Lynn Elwood, the woman the sheriff’s office said stole and pawned the necklace and about 18 additional pieces belonging to Sullivan.

The buyer paid Buccaneer Pawn $500 for the necklace and he got his money back, Ybarra said.

The buyer negotiated his deal from an asking price of $1,100 at Buccaneer Pawn, but the item would sell new in a retail jewelry shop now for $2,300, Sullivan said.

Since the theft, Sullivan has recovered 10 of the stolen pieces at various pawn shops.

Elwood, who has been in Manatee County jail since June 29, has had her bond reset at $9,000, from $32,000.

Ybarra said he did not think something like this could work consistently. He said it took a special set of circumstances, including a determined detective, a persistent victim and a willing buyer.

“Most of our buyers would be pretty sensitive about being called and asked to do that,” Ybarra said. “I don’t think we could or would do this all the time.”

Sullivan, however, has different ideas, wanting to turn her successful encounter into legislation.

“If the pawn shop finds out it is a stolen item, they should have to contact the buyer of the piece and notify them that it is stolen. And they should return it to the pawn shop and the pawn shop should reimburse them,” Sullivan said. “Then the victim will reimburse the pawn shop what it paid to the person who pawned the stolen goods.”

That’s a goal with merit, but one that will be hard to attain, said sheriff’s spokesman Dave Bristow.

“I don’t see that happening,” Bristow said. “Pawn shops have a pretty strong lobby. But I will say that was a good thing that Buccaneer did.

“Everyone came out OK here. I think this is rare, but this is the way it is supposed to work. You make an arrest and people get their property back. In this case, it was teamwork between the pawn shop, the victim and the sheriff’s office.”

Richard Dymond, Herald reporter, can be reached at 748-0411, ext. 6686.