(Another) pawn shop experience

Recently I was looking around in a local pawn shop.

A kid (black maybe 22 years old) came in and started talking to the shop owner about a used semiauto handgun in the showcase.

The owner took the gun out and let the guy look at it and hold it.

The gun was priced at something like $250.

The guy asked about putting it on lay-away.

The shop owner said that he would need $70 to hold it for the guy.

The guy said he had a gun that he would like to give the shop owner to use for his down payment.

He went out to his car and brought in some kind of semiauto handgun.

The owner looked at it and said, "I can take your gun as the $70 down payment, but you can sell it on the street for $100 and keep the $30."

I was standing there with the money in my pocket and briefly considered looking at his trade-in gun.

I decided that since I had no way to determine if it was stolen or not, I should pass---regardless of how good a deal it was.

Every night there are 2 or 3 guns stolen here in Vicksburg and I just didn't want to risk going down that road.