I was inspired yesterday...by a Pawn Shop.

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On Sunday, October 28th, 2018, at the Golden Nugget in Las Vegas, my team wrapped up their day at InspectionFuel and headed out to hang with some inspectors. I was arriving on the last flight in to Vegas from Indianapolis at around 8 PM and getting ready to speak the following day. Checked in with team, all good and set up, and called it an early night.

The next morning, I got some fairly stunning news. The exhibit hall had been robbed. Catherine Hall had a projector stolen and we had a CrawlBot 6T (The brand new model) taken from underneath the booth. Mike and the guys got with security, filed a police report (or at least tried, more on that later), and went on with their day. Sort of sucks to lose $2500 before a conference even officially starts but I've had worse days. We've had IR equipment stolen before which is just sort of the cost of doing business. The police were going to "get back with us".

Yesterday, 3 days after the event, I get a call from a Pawn shop in Las Vegas asking what a CrawlBot is worth. It was the manager of the shop - I asked if he had the guy selling it in the store. The answer was "Yes".

Everything from here on is a testament to not just a good business owner, but a good human. The only reason I won't be sharing the name of the Pawn Shop and manager is that I'm not sure if everything done was totally within the legal way of doing things...but it sure was the right way. It was all required by the way because the Las Vegas Police Department refused to act.

I told the manager this was stolen from the Golden Nugget exhibit hall and told him I did not want him to be in harm's way at all, so what should I do here. He stepped to the back while the guy was sweating at the front counter pictured here. I called the Las Vegas Police Department. I told them I have stolen property and the thief at a Pawn Shop likely moments from where they have a car and asked if they would stop by. They asked for my case number, but Mike Doerr was unavailable. They found it, but there was no serial number - of course I didn't know that there was no serial number on the report because the Las Vegas Police Department hadn't followed up in 3 full days.

I had this whole conversation while the guy was on the phone. He said he had to get back to the guy before he gets too anxious and splits. I said alright, police are no help here, maybe they will be later. Can you get a pic of his ID and the unit at least? The answer was yes, but he couldn't share it with me. We shared the sentiment that this wouldn't likely be followed up upon seriously by the LVPD. So I told the guy I'll cover the purchase - offer him $500. He said the guy was going to walk if he didn't get $1000.

The police hopped back on the line, more nonsense, the manager heard it, and he said to me "this is just wrong. This guy shouldn't get a penny." I told him if he let him walk it was fine, I didn't want him to be in a situation over me. He called for a price and now he was dealing with my problems. He said he'll call me back.

3 minutes later I get a call. He said he told the guy, "I can give you your ID back and you can walk out of here without this stolen merchandise or you can stick around and wait for the police since they are on their way." The guy replied, "Okay man, I'll leave. I didn't steal anything, I found it in the Golden Nugget parking lot."

I asked the manager to describe the guy now that he was absolutely and fully convinced it was my stolen property. He said, "he was a kid". I asked if he was nice about it and left peacefully...the answer was yes. I told that manager to delete the photo of his ID, I'm sending him a check for $300 and a FedEx label, and we won't be following up with the police on our police report.

He told me that's great but keep the $300. I hope that inspires you like it inspires me.