A chain of central Illinois pawn shops with two Springfield locations functioned as a criminal enterprise, fencing stolen goods and buying silver bullion to launder the proceeds, the Illinois attorney general alleges.
The owners of Monster Pawn and some employees appeared in court Thursday in Sangamon County.
Charged were Monster Pawn’s owners, Edwin Pierce, 65, Kathleen Pierce, 58, their son, Everson Pierce, 28, and four others, including Steven Mileham, 71. Mileham is a rare coin dealer and described himself in a 2022 interview with IT as business partner of Edwin Pierce.
When contacted by Illinois Times on Friday, Edwin Pierce declined comment. Scott Sabin, the Springfield attorney representing his wife and son, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The attorney general alleges that between November 2023 and July 2024 the defendants ran an organized retail crime operation at the following locations:
- Monster Pawn Springfield North LLC: 200 block of E. North Grand Ave. in Springfield
- Monster Pawn Springfield Inc.: 2300 block of S. MacArthur Blvd. in Springfield
- Midwest Exchange Inc.: 1400 block of E. Empire St. in Bloomington
- Monster Pawn, Inc.: 1600 block of R.T. Dunn Drive in Bloomington
- Monster Pawn Normal Inc.: 1400 block of S. Main St. in Normal
According to a search warrant and forfeiture document filed in Lee County, where a statewide grand jury was impaneled, the attorney general’s office alleges shoplifters stole from area retailers and the Monster Pawn stores sold the ill-gotten goods online well below what a typical retailer would charge.
April McLaren, a spokesperson for the attorney general, said the defendants were charged through grand jury indictments.
When investigators searched a Springfield Monster Pawn location, they recovered $61,404 in silver bars and 673 pounds of silver coins, court documents said. Also seized were 8,000 new-in-the-box items such as tools, video games, electronics, office supplies and sporting goods that appeared to have been stolen from retailers such as Lowe’s, Home Depot, Walmart and Dick’s Sporting Goods, the documents said.
“A review of Monster Pawn bank accounts shows a pattern of purchasing silver from Steven Mileham as a method of money laundering the proceeds from the sale of stolen items on eBay,” court documents allege.
According to court documents, an anonymous police informant with firsthand knowledge of Monster Pawn’s business practices said the stores knowingly purchased items stolen from retailers, sold them on eBay and failed to pay taxes on the sale of the items.
According to the source, items purchased at the stores still contained anti-theft devices such as tags or “spider wrapping.”
During the investigation, undercover police officers entered the various Monster Pawn locations to sell purported stolen items.
Pawnshops are required to record purchases in an online database called Leadsonline. Police officers routinely search that archive for potentially stolen items.
About 27% of items sold by undercover officers to the various Monster Pawn locations were never recorded on Leadsonline, court documents allege.
“During the course of the (Attorney General) investigation, Monster Pawn employees routinely purchased items that appeared to be stolen without making any serious inquiries into how the seller obtained the item, failed to get identification from the seller and often failed to enter the purchase of the item correctly into Leadsonline or did not record the purchase at all,” court property forfeiture documents state.
Undercover officers allege they sold $16,000 worth of purportedly stolen items to various Monster Pawn locations for $5,000 during the course of the investigation. In one incident, an undercover officer brought in two new televisions with cut anti-theft “spider wrappings” dangling from the boxes and the items were purchased, court documents contend.
The attorney general’s office was tipped off about possible wrongdoing by Home Depot, which investigates retail thefts within its stores. According to court documents, Home Depot estimated its loss of property bought and sold by Monster Pawn shops was more than $1 million since 2019.
The attorney general’s office alleges the Pierce family, with Monster Pawn shop managers and employees, worked together to purchase new merchandise, such as televisions, tools and video game equipment, still in its original packaging.
The attorney general’s office charged Kathleen Pierce with three misdemeanor counts of theft under $500.
Raoul’s office charged Edwin Pierce with three misdemeanor counts of theft under $500, as well as:
- One count of being the organizer of a continuing financial crimes enterprise, a Class X felony punishable by up to 30 years in prison.
- One count of continuing financial crimes enterprise, a Class 1 felony punishable by up to 15 years in prison.
- One count of being the manager of organized retail crime, a Class 2 felony, punishable by up to seven years in prison.
- Eight counts of theft between $500 and $10,000.
- One count of solicitation of theft, and two counts of money laundering, all Class 3 felonies, each punishable by up to five years in prison.
Raoul’s office charged Everson Pierce with seven misdemeanor counts of theft under $500, as well as:
- One count of being the organizer of a continuing financial crimes enterprise, a Class X felony punishable by up to 30 years in prison.
- One count of being the manager of organized retail crime, a Class 2 felony punishable by up to seven years in prison.
- Four counts of theft between $500 and $10,000 and two counts of money laundering, all Class 3 felonies, each punishable by up to five years in prison.
Raoul’s office charged Steven Mileham, 71, of Springfield, with the following:
- One count of solicitation of theft and one count of theft between $500 and $10,000, both Class 3 felonies, each punishable by up to five years in prison.
- One count of being the manager of organized retail crime, a Class 2 felony punishable by up to seven years in prison.
Raoul’s office charged Thomas O’Donnell, 57, of Normal, with the following:
- Two counts of theft between $500 and $10,000 and two counts of money laundering, all Class 3 felonies, each punishable by up to five years in prison.
- Eight misdemeanor counts of theft under $500.
Raoul’s office charged Jessica Cloyd, 34, of Mechanicsburg, with the following:
- One count of theft between $500 and $10,000, a Class 3 felony punishable by up to five years in prison.
- Three misdemeanor counts of theft under $500.
Rauol’s office charged Carter Walker, 25, of Chatham, with the following:
- One count of theft between $500 and $10,000, a Class 3 felony punishable by up to five years in prison.
- One misdemeanor count of theft under $500.
Attorney General Raoul’s Organized Retail Crime Task Force is the first statewide, public-private collaboration of its kind in Illinois and is designed to foster cooperation among retailers, online marketplaces, law enforcement agencies and state’s attorneys dedicated to targeting organized retail crime enterprises.
“Organized retail crime takes many forms and is not limited to any one type of business or region of Illinois,” Raoul said in a prepared statement. “Illinois residents should be able to trust businesses in their communities to operate in accordance with the law and that the goods and services customers purchase from businesses were procured legally.”
Rob Karr, president and CEO of the Illinois Retail Merchants Association, told IT retail theft is an enormous problem. He estimated that shoplifting costs Illinois merchants at least $2 billion annually.
“We have to stop thinking about retail theft as a victimless crime,” he said. “Every time somebody steals something, that is revenue that is lost to federal, state and local government that pays for all the services we rely upon. So, everyone's a victim of retail theft, no matter how big or small.”
Scott Reeder, a staff writer for Illinois Times, can be reached at sreeder@illinoistimes.com.
