Secondhand goods: tangible personal property.

Existing law requires secondhand dealers and coin dealers to, among other things, report certain secondhand tangible personal property taken in trade or pawn, accepted for sale on consignment, or accepted for auctioning, to the chief of police or to the sheriff, as specified. Existing law defines "tangible personal property" for those purposes as including secondhand tangible personal property that bears or bears evidence of having had a serial number or personalized initials and new or used tangible personal property that is received as security for a loan by a pawnbroker or is commonly sold by secondhand dealers and part of a significant class of stolen goods. Existing law requires the Attorney General to supply to local law enforcement agencies and periodically review a list of that personal property commonly sold by secondhand dealers which statistically is found through crime reports to the Attorney General to constitute a significant class of stolen goods. This bill would require the Attorney General to update that list annually and post the list on his or her Internet Web site. The bill would instead specify that "tangible personal property" means secondhand tangible personal property that bears or bears evidence of having had a serial number or personalized initials, new or used tangible personal property that is received as security for a loan by a pawnbroker, or all tangible personal property that the Attorney General statistically determines through the most recent Department of Justice "Crime in California" report to constitute a significant class of stolen goods, as defined. This bill would require the secondhand dealer to verify the identification of the seller or pledger for each transaction.