Du Quoin's new pawn shop opens under weighty ordinance with five pages of city rules to follow

A young man walked into the new Action Pawn shop on South Washington Street with a handful of video games, a headset and something he said was a tiny JVC brand video camera.

"What are you asking for this stuff," asked owner Gary Hatfield, a retired industrial arts teacher, who has owned Action Pawn in Mount Vernon for more than a decade.

"I'd like to get $15 or $20," said the young man. "$15 sounds better than $20," said Hatfield, smiling at the young man.

Hatfield opened every CD case and checked the condition of the disks. He went online to try and find the video recorder.

While doing that he asked the young man for two forms of identification so he could put one of his first customers into the system. The man produced his driver's license and his social security card. "Next time, we won't need to do all this," Hatfield assured the man.

At the end of the exchange Hatfield pulled a $20 bill from an envelope and gave it to him while a printer produced a detailed two-part receipt.

The shop opened quietly this week with employees Kevin Durfee and Ryan Kennedy mostly buying items to get the store's inventory built up.

Hatfield said the shop won't be your ordinary pawn shop. It has already gotten its license from the City of Du Quoin and will buy and sell guns, coins, gold and silver, jewelry, upscale tools and electronics and musical instruments like Gibson and Fender guitars. It will also deal in higher end new and used knives like Case XX knives.

The store mascot is the family's "wiener dog" named Coco and the dog will appear on the store sign and business card. Hatfield smiles and says Coco may have a bigger following than the store.

The store will be open from 9 .. to 5 p.m. Monday through Saturday.

The store phone number is 542-8880. It will compete with a pawn shop called B & B Pawn down the street at the corner of South Washington and East Poplar Streets.

Du Quoin's ordinance governing pawn shops is five pages long and it is hard to imagine that all of the provisions are adhered to:

For instance the ordinance says that in the application process, the pawn broker must come up with signatures of 10 citizens of good reputation who will certify the good reputation and moral character of the applicant.

The Chief of Police must make a recommendation and the city council must approve the license.

The applicant must provide a bond. There are provisions on the forfeiture of pawn. Pawn tickets must be issued. Receipts for payments must be furnished and there has to separate tickets issued for each item. Pawn brokers can't charge more than 6 percent interest for loans on brokered items and the interest rate and service charges must be posted.

The law even states that a pawn broker must deliver a daily report before 12 noon each day except Sunday and the days the pawn broker is closed to the Chief of Police with a detailed accounting of the transactions and descriptions of articles pawned.

The police department Thursday confirmed that reporting requirement is in place.

Pawn shops cannot receive goods from persons who are "intoxicated, under the influence of drugs, insane or a person under the age of 18.

Pawn brokers are responsible for their employees, who must be registered with the police department. The ordinance also outlines the reasons for the city being able to revoke a license.