After Sheriff's Sting Operation, Owners Reclaim Stolen Property

Posted 11:53 a.m. Jun 14, 2001 — Updated 11:53 a.m. Jun 14, 2001

RALEIGH — Theft victims all over the Triangle are getting the last laugh, thanks to a sting operation by the Wake County Sheriff's Office. Officers have begun returning

stolen items recovered

through a fake pawn shop they operated.

Criminals took Angie Strickland's TV, VCR, and stereo, plus her son's Nintendo and bicycle, in three separate thefts over a six-month span. She is glad she got everything back. She did not think getting her insurance company to cover the thefts would help.

"I was at the point where I just felt like, what's the use?" Strickland says. "I'm going to get dropped now, I'm not going to have any insurance, and they're just going to come back and steal what I had replaced."

About a fifth of the 700 items purchased through the fake pawn shop have been identified as stolen. The sting has resulted in 16 arrests so far.

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