PHOTO BY SCOTT REEDER
Edwin Pierce, left, together with his son, Everson Pierce, pictured shortly after Monster Pawn acquired the previous Home of Music property on North Grand Avenue in 2022.
A series of central Illinois pawn retailers with two Springfield places functioned as a legal enterprise fencing stolen items and shopping for silver bullion to launder the proceeds, the Illinois lawyer normal alleges.
The homeowners of Monster Pawn and a few workers appeared in courtroom Thursday in Sangamon County.
Charged had been Monster Pawn’s homeowners, Edwin Pierce, 65; Kathleen Pierce, 58; their son, Everson Pierce, 28, and 4 others, together with Steven Mileham, 71. Mileham is a uncommon coin seller and described himself in a 2022 interview with IT as enterprise associate of Edwin Pierce’s.
When contacted by Illinois Instances on Friday, Edwin Pierce declined remark. Scott Sabin, the Springfield lawyer representing his spouse and son, didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark.
The lawyer normal alleges that between November 2023 and July 2024, the defendants ran an organized retail crime operation on the following places:
- Monster Pawn Springfield North LLC: 200 block of E. North Grand Ave. in Springfield
- Monster Pawn Springfield Inc.: 2300 block of S. MacArthur Blvd. in Springfield
- Midwest Trade Inc.: 1400 block of E. Empire St. in Bloomington
- Monster Pawn, Inc.: 1600 block of R.T. Dunn Drive in Bloomington
- Monster Pawn Regular Inc.: 1400 block of S. Important St. in Regular
Based on a search warrant and forfeiture doc filed in Lee County, the place a statewide grand jury was impaneled, the lawyer normal’s workplace alleges shoplifters stole from space retailers and the Monster Pawn shops bought the ill-gotten items on-line properly beneath what a typical retailer would cost.
April McLaren, a spokesperson for the lawyer normal, stated the defendants had been charged via grand jury indictments.
When investigators searched a Springfield Monster Pawn location, they recovered $61,404 in silver bars and 673 kilos of silver cash, courtroom paperwork stated. Additionally seized had been 8,000 new-in-the-box gadgets reminiscent of instruments, video video games, electronics, workplace provides and sporting items that appeared to have been stolen from retailers reminiscent of Lowe’s, Dwelling Depot, Walmart and Dick’s Sporting Items, the paperwork stated.
“A evaluation of Monster Pawn financial institution accounts exhibits a sample of buying silver from Steven Mileham as a technique of cash laundering the proceeds from the sale of stolen gadgets on eBay,” courtroom paperwork allege.
Based on courtroom paperwork, an nameless police informant with firsthand data of Monster Pawn’s enterprise practices stated the shops knowingly bought gadgets stolen from retailers, bought them on eBay and didn’t pay taxes on the sale of the gadgets.
Based on the supply, gadgets bought on the shops nonetheless contained anti-theft units reminiscent of tags or “spider wrapping.”
In the course of the investigation, undercover law enforcement officials entered the assorted Monster Pawn places to promote purported stolen gadgets.
Pawnshops are required to report purchases in an internet database known as Leadsonline. Law enforcement officials routinely search that archive for probably stolen gadgets.
About 27% of things bought by undercover officers to the assorted Monster Pawn places had been by no means recorded on Leadsonline, courtroom paperwork allege.
“In the course of the course of the (Lawyer Normal) investigation, Monster Pawn workers routinely bought gadgets that gave the impression to be stolen with out making any severe inquiries into how the vendor obtained the merchandise, didn’t get identification from the vendor and sometimes didn’t enter the acquisition of the merchandise appropriately into Leadsonline or didn’t report the acquisition in any respect,” courtroom property forfeiture paperwork state.
Undercover officers allege they bought $16,000 price of purportedly stolen gadgets to varied Monster Pawn places for $5,000 throughout the course of the investigation. In a single incident, an undercover officer introduced in two new televisions with minimize anti-theft “spider wrappings” dangling from the bins and the gadgets had been bought, courtroom paperwork contend.
The lawyer normal’s workplace was tipped off about potential wrongdoing by Dwelling Depot, which investigates retail thefts inside its shops. Based on courtroom paperwork, Dwelling Depot estimated its lack of property purchased and bought by Monster Pawn retailers was greater than $1 million since 2019.
The lawyer normal’s workplace alleges the Pierce household, with Monster Pawn store managers and workers, labored collectively to buy new merchandise, reminiscent of televisions, instruments and online game gear, nonetheless in its unique packaging.
PHOTO BY JAMES BENGFORT
The Monster Pawn retailer at 2324 S. MacArthur Blvd. was certainly one of a number of raided July 23 as a part of search warrants executed by the Illinois Lawyer Normal’s organized retail crime job power.
The lawyer normal’s office charged Kathleen Pierce with three misdemeanor counts of theft below $500.
Raoul’s workplace charged Edwin Pierce with three misdemeanor counts of theft below $500, in addition to:
- One depend of being the organizer of a seamless monetary crimes enterprise, a Class X felony punishable by as much as 30 years in jail.
- One depend of continuous monetary crimes enterprise, a Class 1 felony punishable by as much as 15 years in jail.
- One depend of being the supervisor of organized retail crime, a Class 2 felony, punishable by as much as seven years in jail.
- Eight counts of theft between $500 and $10,000.
- One depend of solicitation of theft, and two counts of cash laundering, all Class 3 felonies, every punishable by as much as 5 years in jail.
Raoul’s workplace charged Everson Pierce with seven misdemeanor counts of theft below $500, in addition to:
- One depend of being the organizer of a seamless monetary crimes enterprise, a Class X felony punishable by as much as 30 years in jail.
- One depend of being the supervisor of organized retail crime, a Class 2 felony punishable by as much as seven years in jail.
- 4 counts of theft between $500 and $10,000 and two counts of cash laundering, all Class 3 felonies, every punishable by as much as 5 years in jail.
Raoul’s workplace charged Steven Mileham, 71, of Springfield, Illinois, with the next:
- One depend of solicitation of theft and one depend of theft between $500 and $10,000, each Class 3 felonies, every punishable by as much as 5 years in jail.
- One depend of being the supervisor of organized retail crime, a Class 2 felony punishable by as much as seven years in jail.
Raoul’s workplace charged Thomas O’Donnell, 57, of Regular, Illinois, with the next:
- Two counts of theft between $500 and $10,000 and two counts of cash laundering, all Class 3 felonies, every punishable by as much as 5 years in jail.
- Eight misdemeanor counts of theft below $500.
Raoul’s workplace charged Jessica Cloyd, 34, of Mechanicsburg, Illinois, with the next:
- One depend of theft between $500 and $10,000, a Class 3 felony punishable by as much as 5 years in jail.
- Three misdemeanor counts of theft below $500.
Rauol’s workplace charged Carter Walker, 25, of Chatham, Illinois, with the next:
- One depend of theft between $500 and $10,000, a Class 3 felony punishable by as much as 5 years in jail.
- One misdemeanor depend of theft below $500.
Lawyer Normal Raoul’s Organized Retail Crime Process Drive is the primary statewide, public-private collaboration of its form in Illinois and is designed to foster cooperation amongst retailers, on-line marketplaces, regulation enforcement companies and state’s attorneys devoted to concentrating on organized retail crime enterprises.
“Organized retail crime takes many varieties and isn’t restricted to anyone sort of enterprise or area of Illinois,” Raoul stated in a ready assertion. “Illinois residents ought to be capable to belief companies of their communities to function in accordance with the regulation and that the products and companies clients buy from companies had been procured legally.”
Rob Karr, president and CEO of the Illinois Retail Retailers Affiliation, advised IT retail theft is a gigantic drawback. He estimated that shoplifting prices Illinois retailers a minimum of $2 billion yearly.
“We’ve got to cease interested by retail theft as a victimless crime,” he stated. “Each time any person steals one thing, that’s income that’s misplaced to federal, state and native authorities that pays for all of the companies we rely on. So, everybody’s a sufferer of retail theft, irrespective of how huge or small.”
