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Pawn shops see oddities as people try to make ends meet
Pawn shop owners are seeing unusual items, like the Native American knife in this display case, as people become more willing to part with their treasures to pay the bills.
SPRING HILL (Bay News 9) -- More families are parting with treasured heirlooms to make ends meet, and many of those items are showing up on pawn shops.
As more people try to sell their belongings, the objects on the shelves become more unusual. In addition to the typical pawn shop fare, like guns, jewelry, guitars, rarer items are starting to show up, like a Civil War flag or a horse trailer with a saddle.
Butch Votaw, who manages a pawn shop in Spring Hill, said the tough economic times have left caused people to try to pawn things they've never tried to pawn before, like handicap carts. Votaw said he won't take them; nonetheless, at least once a week, someone tries to pawn one.
Other items are more valuable, like an old Native American knife, which goes for about $2,700. Votaw said that if the tip was still on the knife, he would be able to sell it for a lot more than that.
Joe Rickle, another pawn shop owner, said his shop has had some odd requests as well.
"We've had somebody try and pawn a prosthetic leg," he said. "We get calls trying to sell dogs."
Rickle, who along with his family has owned a pawn shop for years, said people are even selling the gold caps off their teeth.
"We've seen them with teeth in them and without teeth in them," he said.
Rickle said he wouldn't take the cap if it had a tooth in it.
The stories about the oddities showing up in pawn shops can be entertaining, but there's often a harsh reality behind all of them.
Katie Kusnierczak is selling off some very old family jewelry so her mom can keep her house, a situation she describes as "horrible."
"She couldn't do it," she said. "She couldn't bring herself in to do it."
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