Pawn 101: Pawn records aid Maui police in death investigation

Kamaaina Loan’s pawn manager Krystal Cabiles is famous in the pawn shop for her steel-trap memory for names, faces and phone numbers. Krystal did it again today, when she matched a photo that Maui police had posted on Facebook with a pawn customer she had seen — just once — two months ago.

The body of a man was discovered a few days ago on the grounds of a Lahaina resort, and police retrieved a driver’s license. But the information on it led to a dead end, and police could not trace the man’s family. They are withholding information about him until they can find them.

They didn’t even know where on Maui the man had been staying.

Krystal says she was “making my nightly Facebook rounds” when she saw the picture. She recognized it. The man had done a pawn loan with us, and the records gave his name, address, fingerprint etc. Even better, although visitors don’t have to tell us where they are staying (we use their home addresses), the man had mentioned the resort where he was staying, and even why he was on Maui.

At police request, Kamaaina Loan blog is withholding that, too, until the family can be found. But it was a good thing the man had mentioned where he was staying, because he forgot his driver’s license. Our pawn broker Alan Cooperstein drove all the way to the west side to return it.

So this morning, Big Rich was able to tell the police where the man  had been staying, and using a credit check program, supplied a list of what appeared to be his relatives and, possibly, the name of the man ‘s family business.

As this is posted, police are following the leads.

As Big Rich rec

alls, this was not the first time his pawn records solved a mystery. Once, years ago, a pawn ticket found on the body of a murder victim in Los Angeles led police to Big Rich, who had the victim’s pawned radio, which had his Social Security number on it.