{"id":9048,"date":"2012-02-24T06:36:51","date_gmt":"2012-02-24T14:36:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/198.57.196.122\/~gdatwofo\/theavtimes\/?p=9048"},"modified":"2012-07-01T14:10:20","modified_gmt":"2012-07-01T21:10:20","slug":"trading-post-pawn-shop-owner-there-is-no-justice-here","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/2012\/02\/24\/trading-post-pawn-shop-owner-there-is-no-justice-here\/","title":{"rendered":"Trading Post Pawn Shop owner: \u2018There is no justice here!\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>
Trading Post Pawn Shop owners Mark Kirzner(left) and Mikhail Gurevich(right) say they have been in business for eight years, and up until last week's raid, had established a trusted reputation in the community.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

LANCASTER \u2013 Last week gang detectives from the Sheriff\u2019s Department descending on the Trading Post Pawn Shop and the duplex directly behind the store, after obtaining information that employees of the pawn shop were taking in stolen property and dealing drugs, according to a news release by the Lancaster Sheriff\u2019s Station. Read more here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The owners of the Trading Post Pawn Shop gave their side of the story Thursday.<\/p>\n

Co-owners Mark Kirzner and Mikhail Gurevich said they had not seen a copy of the warrant giving deputies the right to search their store, deputies had seized licensed firearms from the store\u2019s safe, and the raid had caused untold damage to their business\u2019s reputation in the community.<\/p>\n

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Owners say they have proper legal documentation for the guns seized at the Trading Post last week.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cThere is no justice here!\u201d said Kirzner.<\/p>\n

Kirzner said his store\u2019s alarm company called him in the early morning hours of Feb. 15 to notify him that there was activity in the store and law enforcement was not responding to the call. He said he drove to the store from his Granada Hills home, arriving around 7 a.m., and was confronted by dozens of officers in swat gear who treated him harshly.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey said to open the safe and go,\u201d Kirzner said. \u201cThey said they had a warrant but nobody showed me the search warrant or gave me a copy of it. It is their responsibility to show me what they are doing here\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n

He said deputies ordered him outside and then searched his store for about an hour. He said he could not immediately give them access to the safe so the fire department came in, broke the locks to his safe and then seized his weapons.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese are legally owned, two handguns and one shotgun, they\u2019re mine and my partner’s and never been used somewhere else, just used for our protection,\u201d Kirzner said, before showing handgun safety certificates and receipts for the guns.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey took our stuff and they did not give us any papers to say what it is they took, and they didn\u2019t give us any explanation about why they broke in,\u201d said Kirzner\u2019s wife Gerta Zelma. \u201cThey don\u2019t return our calls to find out what is going on.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Deputies also raided the duplex behind the pawn shop, which is where they recovered the alleged stolen items.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Kirzner said deputies raided the duplex behind his store where two of his employees were staying. He said he does not own the property behind his store and has no connection to the property. He said deputies arrested two of his employees Scott Densley, 51, and Randel Sagraves, 53, along with their wives.<\/p>\n

Kirzner said the wives and one of the employees, Densley, were let go without being charged, and as of early Thursday morning, Sagraves was out on bail.<\/p>\n

Kirzner said he found out why deputies were at his store only after reading about it in the media and was horrified that his business appeared to be linked to a drug operation.<\/p>\n

\u201cI never saw any drugs, I never saw them [employees] do drugs, if I did, I would fire them right away,\u201d Kirzner said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf they take a dollar without a ticket, I would fire them right away,\u201d co-owner Gurevich said.<\/p>\n

Store owners are demanding their firearms back from the Sheriff\u2019s Department, and said they would like an apology as well.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is no legitimate reason for them to accuse the shop,\u201d said Gerta Zelma. \u201cIt\u2019s been always clean, there\u2019s no illegal activity on the premises or around the premises during the operating hours, whatever they believe they found is outside the shop and we do not have any information about it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Owners say they run a legitimate business and every item taken into the store is recorded.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Contacted Thursday afternoon, Lancaster Station Spokesman, Michael Rust said the department had followed correct procedure and a valid search warrant had been served at the Trade Post Pawn Shop.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe has a signed by the judge copy of the warrant in his possession,\u201d Rust said. \u201cThey were given copies of the warrant when the warrant was served.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rust said deputies seized two hand guns from inside the store\u2019s safe and a shotgun that was mounted on the wall, because during business hours the guns were underneath the counter area for personal protection, and two of the store\u2019s employees were convicted felons.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe owner of the Trading Post did not have the weapons secured, and the felons had easy access and admitted to having access to those weapons,\u201d Rust said. \u201cThat\u2019s why the weapons were taken, and he will get the weapons back as soon as the case is adjudicated.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rust said the store\u2019s owners were given \u201call the paperwork they were entitled to\u201d regarding the confiscated weapons.<\/p>\n

Additionally, Rust said deputies late Thursday morning had busted Trading Post employee, Randel Sagraves again, after finding a storage unit in his name that was filled with drugs.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe has been re-arrested back at the Trading Post, so he is back in custody under a new fresh charge,\u201d Rust said. (Read more here<\/a>.)<\/p>\n

Rust said the owners of the Trading Post were not under investigation and had not been accused of any wrongdoing.<\/p>\n

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An employee was re-arrested at the store Thursday.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cIt was the employees that were working there at the store, but there again, the store owners had full knowledge of the employees\u2019 backgrounds,\u201d Rust said. \u201cHe knew full well and he, in fact, hired them back when they got out of jail, that\u2019s why we went back today (Thursday) and rearrested the one guy, because he had a storage locker full of dope.\u201d<\/p>\n

Contacted late Thursday, Kirzner continued to insist that he had not seen nor did he have a copy of the search warrant.<\/p>\n

\u201cI already said they did not show me anything!\u201d he said. \u201cI don\u2019t want to fight with them, I just want my guns back.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

LANCASTER \u2013 Last week gang detectives from the Sheriff\u2019s Department descending on the Trading Post Pawn Shop and the duplex directly behind the store, after obtaining information that employees of the pawn shop were taking in stolen property and dealing drugs, according to a news release by the Lancaster Sheriff\u2019s Station. Read more here. The […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":9050,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[719,10],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9048"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9048"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9048\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9050"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9048"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9048"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9048"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}