Owings Mills Pawn Shop Owner Sentenced to Jail

Owings Mills, MD — An Owings Mills man was sentenced to nearly four years in prison Friday for paying shoplifters to steal items from big box stores, then selling them at his pawn shop on Reisterstown Road, according to the U.S. Attorney for the District of Maryland.

Noel Erik Anshel, 49, of Owings Mills, paid five shoplifters more than $200,000 total for the items, which he sold on eBay and listed as "new," even though he only had a license as a pawn shop owner to resell goods that were secondhand, officials reported. Items he bought from the shoplifters included construction tools, pressure washers, kitchen appliances, electrical generators and consumer electronics.

With approximately $551,000 that he is estimated to have stolen through the scheme, Anshel purchased six houses in Baltimore, according to authorities.

Anshel's operation was unearthed after officers with the Howard County Police Department followed a suspect who had stolen items from a Home Depot and traveled to his pawn shop at Hilltop Cellular in the 5400 block of Reisterstown Road, according to the U.S. Attorney. That was in April 2014, and police seized $20,000 worth of stolen items.

When police called him on it, Anshel allegedly said: "Ninety percent of what I buy is stolen—it's the cost of doing business."

Officials said he had four Paypal accounts and six bank accounts. He is required to forfeit $551,000 for the thefts from January 2010 to August 2015, according to the U.S. Attorney.

 In addition to 46 months in prison, Anshel will be on probation for three years following his release.