Pawn Shop Bust: 5 Men Face Charges For Selling Stolen Goods

DETROIT, MI -- Five local pawn shop employees are facing charges in connection to an organized retail fraud scheme where the men would allegedly pawn and sell stolen items from big box stores around the area. Both US Pawn in Dearborn Heights and Platinum Pawn Shop in Southgate were involved in the recent police crackdown.

Three employees of US Pawn in Dearborn Heights face charges: Spencer Robert Szostak, 31 of Dearborn, Steven Todd Kilbourne-Bullion, 30 of Allen Park and Stephen Robert Dodge, 31, of Dearborn. They reportedly stole items from Canton big box stores and then sold them from the pawn shop from October 2017 to April of this year. They also reportedly sold the stolen items on eBay, authorities said.

Police also arrested two employees of Platinum Pawn Shop in Southgate: 33-year-old Ali Hassan, of Dearborn Heights, and 37-year-old Bilal Mohamad Taleb of Ontario, Canada. Police say since the start of the year the two have been purchasing high-end merchandise that was stolen from big box stores all around Metro Detroit.

“The impact of these cases illustrate why the Wayne County Prosecutor’s Office is trying to form a Business Protection Unit,” Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy said in a statement. “These crimes cause process of goods and services to rise, insurance rates increase and businesses are reluctant to be community partners. So-called victimless crimes are a fallacy.”

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