[HISTORY: Adopted by the City Council of
the City of Scranton 3-1-1999 by Ord. No. 11-1999;[1] amended in its entirety 4-10-2014 by Ord. No. 12-2014.
Subsequent amendments noted where applicable.]
[1]
Editor's Note: This ordinance superseded former Ch. 379, Secondhand
Goods and Dealers, adopted as Ch. 27 of the 1979 Code.
No person shall use, exercise or carry on the
business, trade or occupation of buying scrap gold, old gold, silver,
jewelry, clothing, home electronics/audio and visual equipment, including
musical instruments, telephones and telephonic equipment, scales,
computers, computer hardware and software, typewriters, word processors,
scanners, sporting goods of all kinds, antiques, silver, platinum,
all other precious metals, tools of all kinds, televisions, VCRs,
camcorders, car stereos, firearms or other valuable articles, hereinafter
referred to as "secondhand goods or articles," or being a secondhand
dealer within the City of Scranton without having first obtained a
license from the Department of Licensing, Inspections and Permits
as hereinafter provided. A "secondhand dealer" is defined as a person,
association, corporation or partnership, or other entity, who, wholly
or in part, engages in or operates the trade or business of buying
or acquiring any article mentioned above, or other valuable articles,
except from a regularly established wholesale dealer.
The Department of Licensing, Inspections and
Permits shall, from time to time, give and grant licenses to all proper
persons, except persons convicted of receiving stolen goods, theft
or burglary, who may apply for the same to use, exercise and carry
on the trade or business or occupation of buying secondhand goods
or articles, or being a secondhand dealer, which said license shall
state where said business is to be carried on and shall continue in
force for one year (unless sooner suspended or revoked) and no longer;
and each person applying for such license, if his application be approved
in writing by the Department of Licensing, Inspections and Permits,
shall pay to the said official for the use of the City the sum of
$100, and receive from the said official a license to carry out the
said business. The license so granted shall only be valid for one
place of business.
No person shall use the streets, lanes, courts,
alleys, highways, buildings, houses, public squares or grounds of
the City for the purposes of purchasing or trading in secondhand goods
or articles, or act as a secondhand dealer thereat, until a license
for that purpose granted by the Department of Licensing, Inspections
and Permits shall have first been issued.
All licensees shall conduct their business in
conformity with the following procedures:
A.
Each and every person licensed shall carry said license on his or
her person for inspection by any policeman or other City inspector.
The licensee shall also keep a book in which shall be legibly written
in the English language the name of the person from whom such secondhand
goods or articles shall have been purchased, his or her address, age,
the date and time when purchased, the amount of money paid therefor,
a copy of a photo identification of the seller of the secondhand good
or article or a photo of such person, and a close-up photo of the
entire good or article. The book shall be available for review by
the Department of Licensing, Inspections and Permits or detectives
or any and all Scranton police officers.
B.
All licensees shall fill out, at the time of the transaction,
the forms furnished by the Scranton Police Department, such forms
to be hand-delivered weekly on Friday to the Detective Division, not
faxed.
C.
All goods purchased by licensees under this article
must be retained in the possession of the licensee for at least 30
days.
D.
No licensee shall purchase such secondhand goods or
articles or other article of value from any person under 18 years
of age, or from any intoxicated person or any person known to be a
thief or associate of thieves, or receiver of stolen property, or
any person whom the licensee has reason to suspect or believes to
be such.
E.
The Department of Licensing, Inspections and Permits
and the Superintendent of Police are hereby authorized to make any
other rules and regulations necessary, in their opinion, for the proper
conduct of the person or business licensed and must report such rules
to the Mayor and City Council, after review and approval by the City
Solicitor.
A.
Any licensee failing, neglecting or refusing to comply with any of
the above provisions of this article shall be fined a sum of $300
for the first offense, plus costs, and shall have his or her license
suspended for the period of 10 days. Each subsequent offense shall
add an additional fine of $300 and an additional ten-day suspension.
Both fine and suspension shall be mandatory and are not to be waived.
B.
Every day that a violation continues shall be a separate
violation. Each violation shall result in an additional ten-day suspension.
A person or entity who violates the provisions of this article four
times in a three-hundred-sixty-five-day period shall have his license
revoked for one year.
C.
The Department of Licensing, Inspections and Permits
or Scranton Police Department, if a third violation of the above provisions
of this article occurs, may proceed to charge in accordance with 53
P.S. § 25257.
If any licensee shall be convicted of receiving
stolen goods or shall have been convicted of violation of this article
for failure or refusal to hand-deliver required daily or weekly reports
to the Detective Division, the Department of Licensing, Inspections
and Permits and Scranton Police Department are hereby authorized to
revoke forthwith the license of any such person.
