Secret Service catches counterfeiter thanks to his trip to American Jewelry and Loan in Detroit
Author: Mara MacDonald, Local 4 Reporter
DETROIT –
He might qualify as one of Detroit’s dumbest criminals.
Kenny “Boom” Smith was busted by the U.S. Secret Service for making and passing counterfeit money. Smith must have thought his funny money skills are pretty good because he attempted to sell both his counterfeit cash and his counterfeiting machine to a pawn shop. Not just any pawn shop, either.
American Jewelry and Loan is where the hit TV show “Hardcore Pawn” is shot. The store near 8 Mile and Evergreen roads has become a destination because of the show.
“We have tour buses and people from all over the world coming here. They love the show and we’re a great pawn shop,” said owner Les Gold.
Gold is the star of the show and has been in the pawn business a long time.
“We see everything. People bring in counterfeit money, counterfeit jewelry. Nothing surprises me nowadays,” he said.
So Gold didn’t bat an eyelash when Smith showed up and wanted to sell him his counterfeit money and machine. He wanted to be on the show. Smith told Gold he would bring his counterfeiting equipment to the store. A short time later the Secret Service showed up at American Jewelry and Loan. They had been tracing Smith’s activities since he had been passing his fake bills.
Gold filled them in on what Smith had told him and the agents found out Smith’s counterfeiting claims had been captured on camera for the show.
So now, Smith has been busted by the Secret Service and charged in federal court. This isn’t his first counterfeiting case either. He has done a stint in prison for the same thing and if convicted he is going back again.
As Gold says, “All because he wanted his five minutes of fame on TV.”
Smith actually signed a waiver to be on the TV show.
After centuries serving as the gritty urban lender of last resort for the unemployed, unlucky and untrustworthy, pawnbrokers are moving upscale, online and out to the suburbs, attracting a new clientele of bargain hunters and credit-starved suburbanites.
The makeover comes courtesy of the worst economic downturn in 80 years and two increasingly popular reality television shows.
First, the recession clamped down on credit and amped up financial distress for consumers of all classes. Then a pair of cable shows introduced the world of pawn to a new breed of consumer who needed to borrow or was eager for second-hand bargains.
“It’s cool to go to the pawn shop now,” says Les Gold, owner of American Jewelry and Loan, the Detroit shop on truTV’s “Hardcore Pawn” reality show. “It’s changed the perception of what pawn shops used to be.”
While the perception of hock shops has changed for people who have never relied on them, Gold concedes that the basic business of pawn shops is still the same — acting as the credit card for people who can’t get one from MasterCard or Visa. What’s changed is that since 2007, more people have joined that group, and many of those who do still have credit cards can’t use them.
As of 2009, 25.6 percent of all American households depended on alternative credit sources, such as payday lenders, rent-to-own stores and pawn shops, according to an FDIC survey. In Michigan, it was 23.4 percent of households. Many of those people have always been pawn shop customers when they need to borrow.
Now add the number of people who used to have credit but lost it during the recession. Between August 2008 and December 2009, credit card issuers cut the credit available to cardholders by nearly $1 trillion — a 32percent reduction. By the end of last year, available credit on plastic still was $724 billion less, down 25 percent from the credit bubble. The amount of home equity consumers could tap shrank by $226 billion between March 2008 and June 2011, a drop of 31 percent, with only a slight improvement by December from that low point.
All told, more than $900 billion of available credit vanished from the economy in three years, leaving a lot of consumers looking for new sources of borrowing. And if they hadn’t thought of pawn shops before, all they had to do was turn on their TVs.
“There’s a void to fill,” said Tony Aubrey, who owns four Motor City Pawn Brokers stores. His two established stores are in Roseville and Warren, but since the Great Recession he’s added pawn stores in suburban Livonia and even in trendy Ferndale.
The increase in demand is being met with an increase of pawn options, including brokers who specialize in high-end goods and online pawn services targeting jewelry and watches.
The number of brick-and-mortar pawn shops in the U.S. has increased by more than half in the past five years, said Emmett Murphy, spokesman for the National Pawnbrokers Association, including three Texas-based publicly traded pawn chains that control about 13 percent of the industry. From fewer than 6,400 pawn stores in 2007, the total is now about 10,000.
“We’re seeing a new type of customer,” Murphy said. “I credit the change in the image of the pawn industry to the success of the television shows.”
The new pawn customer is often looking for unusual items, such as the oddities and collectibles featured on the History Channel show “Pawn Stars,” or deals on second-hand items, including the jewelry that makes up 80 percent of business for many hock shops.
There’s another type of customer showing up at Greenfield and Eight Mile now that “Hardcore Pawn” spotlights American Jewelry and Loan: tourists.
“Now we have people from Australia, Alaska,” says Seth Gold, Les’ son and partner. “We even had a guy from Florida drive straight through just to meet us.”
Last summer, luxury tour buses unloaded 125 people at a time into the store. A corner dedicated to “Hardcore Pawn” features posters, pictures and T-shirts, including one that shows a grimacing Les, flanked by Seth and his sister, Ashley, over the words, “I got kicked out of American Jewelry and Loan.”
Les Gold signs pictures and autographs while conducting business.
“It’s all day long, sometimes 200 people at a time,” he says, including other pawn shop owners. “Pawnbrokers come in to thank us when they’re on vacation.”
Two other couples visiting are former Michiganians Debbie Coley, 62, a retired nurse, and her husband, William, 60, a retired trainman. They are visiting Mike Smiatacz, 63, a retired city worker from St. Clair Shores, and his wife, Jan.
“My sister is an avid fan and asked for a picture,” Debbie Coley says. “I think it’s great, it’s a boost. Detroit is always getting a bum rap.”As a souvenir, she buys a necklace for her sister. “It’s a good deal,” she says, showing it off.
After getting Les Gold to pose with them for a picture, like all the other tourists who visit, both couples turn to leave.
There’s one more thing they’ve got in common with all the other tourists — they’ve never been in a pawnshop before.
Naperville reality TV enthusiasts will get more opportunities to see a hometown businesses on national television.
Tom Brunzelle, one-quarter of the cast of Pawn Queens, said TLC has ordered a full season of the show — a reality program based on Naperville Jewelry and Loan that caters specifically to female clientele.
“We love it, of course,” he said, adding that he got official word Dec. 17 that TLC would film an entire season of the show. “To me, (it will be) several long days again.”
Filming of two pilot episodes of the show occurred this summer, with back-to-back airings on the network Nov. 18. Brunzelle said he expects filming to start up again in February.
“I believe they have a pretty aggressive (filming) schedule from my understanding,” he said.
The store recently moved to a larger space down the street at 605 E. Ogden Avenue, both in anticipation of more filming and more customers as a result of the show.
“Customers are coming from all over,” Brunzelle said. “Name a state that touches Illinois, and (residents of those states) are coming in.”
On one show, the pawn-store owner is trading in antiquities and working big deals. On another show, the pawn-store owner deals with an array of sketchy characters kept in line only by his beefy security guards.
Neither portrayal seems familiar to pawn dealers in the Phoenix area.
“That’s all glitz,” said Stan Grossman, owner of Glendale Pawn and Jewelry. “The truth is, just like anyone else, we have a normal business.”
Pawn shops have become the latest fertile ground for reality shows.
Both shows, “Pawn Stars” and “Hardcore Pawn,” invoke puns that capitalize on “pawn” sounding like “porn.” But each presents wildly different views of pawn-shop life.
“Pawn Stars,” set in a Las Vegas shop and airing on the History Channel, makes the pawn life seem like a daily “Antiques Roadshow.” People come into a suspiciously empty pawn shop with valuables – the Who’s contract to play at Woodstock, John Hancock’s signature, a Rolex watch.
The staff hems and haws over pricing, sometimes bringing in experts to authenticate and evaluate items.
The other show, “Hardcore Pawn,” airing on truTV, presents a seedier vision. Set in Detroit, it features customers from a broad spectrum – a recently released prisoner comes in with power tools, and a woman demanding the return of a pawned item long since sold must be escorted out by security guards. One desperate woman tries to sell her pets (and since the store had earlier purchased a baby alligator, anything is fair game).
But most days at pawn shops are not as exciting.
“We kind of fall in the middle,” said Robert Palagi, president of North Phoenix Pawn.
“Not everybody who comes in here is a tweaker with pockmarks and a hypodermic coming out of their arms,” Palagi said. Note that he said “not everybody.”
Palagi said there can be a rough element to the crowd, but he can’t remember ever having to threaten somebody with a gun.
“Customers get rowdy, but it’s so few and far between,” he said.
Antiques also are rare, said Eric Baker, store director at Mo Money Pawn Shop in Phoenix.
“We don’t see them that often,” he said. “If I would base my business on that, I’d be out of business in two weeks.”
Baker said he mainly gets TVs, DVD players, tools, electronics, watches and jewelry.
“You’ll never see that stuff on the show.”
The transactions can be a little more colorful than what may occur at Macy’s or Nordstrom, a detail the shows can accurately portray.
“At a pawn show, we don’t have to have customer service,” Baker said. “It’s our way or the highway.”
Baker said the reality shows are changing reality at his shop slightly. More people are coming in looking for antiques, based on what they see on “Pawn Stars.”
“I don’t mind the attention,” he said, “as frivolous as (it) is.”
Grossman, of Glendale Pawn and Jewelry, agreed, saying that on one level the show does a service for pawn stores by explaining how the process works.
But Grossman said a camera crew might nod off in his store. The overwhelming majority of his trade comes from people pawning or selling gold jewelry. And most interactions are pleasant.
“Generally, people are always nice,” he said. “If you take the time to explain why you’re doing things, most people understand.”
What keeps him interested is the unknown, always unsure what might wander through the door. Most times it’s jewelry, but he’ll get samurai swords or barbell sets.
“People don’t understand the depth of knowledge that pawn shop people acquire through the years,” he said. “It’s amazing what people own.”
New truTV show ‘Hardcore Pawn’ features Detroit pawn shop American Jewelry and Loan
By Jessica Nunez | MLive.com
December 16, 2009, 8:42AM
American Jewelry and Loan in Detroit is the star of a new truTV show called ‘Hardcore Pawn.’ It airs on Monday at 11 p.m.Pawnshops: they’re there for you when you need money fast, or when you need a great deal on a big screen TV. Now one Detroit pawnshop is trying to hone in on a completely different business — entertainment.
Or reality television, to be more specific.
On Monday, the first two episodes of a show called “Hardcore Pawn” (which is either the worst or best TV show name of the year — it’s hard to decide which) will air on truTV.
The show will feature Detroit pawnshop American Jewelry and Loan and the crazy things it encounters on a daily basis, including customers who try to exchange things like alligators and prosthetic limbs in exchange for cash.
“We’re actually hoping [viewers] do like what they see,” owner Les Gold says in a Metro Times article. “I hope a lot of them tune in, to be honest with you. If you tune in on Monday, you’ll see some strange things come in.”
Metro Times, Dec. 16: (Les’ Son) Seth explains, “The reason why we agreed to do this wasn’t to become famous. It was to shed some light on what we do. Pawn shops have a negative stigma attached to them, and we opened up the door to show what we do so as to kind of take that —” “—to a legitimate, understandable level,” Les concludes.
The Golds’ pawn shop isn’t the first to be featured on a reality show.
A new History Channel show called ‘Pawn Stars’ (again, the porn pun … are we missing something?) also airs on Mondays, at 10 p.m.
This one follows the owners of Gold and Silver Pawn Shop in Las Vegas, but Les Gold says the shows aren’t that similar.
“…The pawnbrokers of “Pawn Stores” deal in higher-end items, “Hardcore Pawn” would feature a more down-to-earth look at the industry,” Les says in a recent Crain’s Detroit Business article.
Only two episodes of “Hardcore Pawn” have been taped so far, but if the ratings are high enough, the show could be picked up on a regular basis.
Both episodes air on Monday, Dec. 21 at 11 and 11:30 p.m.
WARNING: This video contains harsh language and is a ridiculous example of what’s wrong with television and the people who crave reality TV. Thank God this is not exemplary of the real pawnbroking industry.
Leave it to Hollywood and these three Las Vegas prostitutes to reinforce every gratuitous negative stereotype of the most civilized form of short-term consumer credit. Fortunately, for every pawnshop operation such as this embellished for prime-time farce, there are dozens of modern family-friendly pawn shop professionals who serve their customers with dignity and run their businesses in a respectable manner. Reality TV has nothing to do with reality. Steve Krupnik
