A thief pawns a stolen item, receives money from the pawnshop, the police recover the item from the pawnshop and return it to the owner. The thief is arrested. Do prosecutors seek restitution for the pawnshop? Or is such loss part of the risky business and prosecutors do not seek restitution for legal or practical reasons?

As a practical matter, 90% of these cases are SJF theft amounts, and the defendant is a drug user who 1) isn't probation eligible and 2) couldn't complete probation successfully if he had a police officer personally assigned to him. No way to get restitution as a condition either of probation or parole. Also, I've never had a pawnshop request restitution.

Thanks Brody. We've never had a request either. Here's the hypo: thief steals 5 items from a victim and pawns them. Victim pays pawnshop to redeem 2 items and get them back quicker, police later seize other 3. Should the prosecutor seek restitution for the victim for the amount he paid the pawnshop to redeem the 2 items, but not seek restitution for the pawnshop for the money it loaned the thief on the other 3 items? Thief is likely to receive probation, but not likely to actually pay back the restitution.

If the thief gets probation, he should be required to repay the pawnshop. It would be a gross injustice if the thief rips off the pawnshop, gets a gift from the court--probation--and then gets to keep his ill-gotten gains, at the expense of the pawnshop.

Every time our officers leave a pawnshop with stolen property, they also leave with a written restitution request. While it is rare that we are able to collect, we always try and those efforts are rewarded by much better cooperation from the pawn shops.

We always try to get the amount back to the pawnshop if it's feasible. No reason not to, and if the defendant's owning up to the crime, he ought to be made to make all involved parties whole to the greatest degree possible.

Thanks all for feedback. I found this "Affidavit of Property Voluntarily Surrendered by a Pawn Shop" from the Riesel PD: http://www.cityofriesel.com/PawnShopAff.pdf