Federal agents raid Philadelphia pawn shop in connection with nationwide theft ring: Sources

PHILADELPHIA (WPVI) -- Federal agents spent hours raiding a South Street pawn shop in Philadelphia on Wednesday.

Sources tell Action News the raid was part of a multi-million dollar retail theft ring that stretched across the country.

Federal agents with Homeland Security began removing items from Society Hill Loan, a pawn shop that has been a fixture at 7th and South streets, around noon.

Neighbors watched as agents hauled boxes marked as evidence out of the store and loaded them into unmarked cargo trucks.

Some of the items agents carried out of the store include power tools.

Sources told Action News the joint investigation involves Homeland Security and Philadelphia police and is connected to a multi-state retail theft ring that has amassed millions of dollars.

Sources also confirmed that two other stores, including one on the 3100 block of Kensington Avenue and Lou's Pawn Shop on Market Street in Wilmington, Delaware, were also visited by federal agents on Wednesday.

A spokesperson for the Office of Homeland Security Investigations would not confirm if the store's owners are facing any charges or what brought agents to the store.

Society Hill Loan has remained a fixture on South Street for years and has a large online presence on eBay.

By Wednesday evening, the eBay store was inactive.

Many of the comments on their site praise the owners for reuniting people with stolen items brought to the store to be pawned.

Law enforcement locally and nationally are putting pressure on busting retail theft rings nationwide.