[HISTORY: Adopted by the Mayor and Council of the Borough
of Brooklawn 4-21-2014 by Ord. No. 4-14[1]. Amendments noted where applicable.]
GENERAL REFERENCES
Canvassers and solicitors — See Ch. 64.
[1]
Editor's Note: This ordinance also repealed former Ch. 102,
Jewelry, Gems, and Precious Metals, adopted 3-19-2012 by Ord. No.
1-12.
A.
The purpose and intent of this chapter is to assist law enforcement
officials and victims of crime in recovering stolen precious materials,
gems, gemstones and/or other articles by requiring minimum reporting,
maintenance and distribution criteria for secondhand and transient
dealers.
B.
No person shall use, exercise or carry on the business, trade or
occupation of buying scrap gold, old gold, silver, jewelry, home electronics/audio
and visual equipment, musical instruments, telephones and telephonic
equipment, scales, computers, computer hardware and software, typewriters,
word processors, scanners, sporting goods of all kinds, antiques,
platinum, all other precious metals, tools of all kinds, televisions,
DVRs, GPS, camcorders, car stereos, gift cards, furniture, clothing
or other valuable articles, hereinafter referred to as "secondhand
goods or articles," or being a secondhand dealer within the Borough
of Brooklawn without having first obtained a license from the Borough
of Brooklawn.
For the purposes of this chapter, the following terms, phrases,
words and their derivations shall have the meanings ascribed herein.
Words used in the present tense shall include the future, words in
the plural number shall include the singular number and words in the
singular number shall include the plural number. The word "shall"
is always mandatory, and not merely directory.
Acceptable forms of identification which include: a current
valid New Jersey driver's license or identification card, a current
valid photo driver's license issued by another US state, a valid
United States passport, or other verifiable US government-issued identification.
Any article of merchandise, including any portion of such
article, whether a distinct part thereof or not, including every part
thereof whether separable or not, and also including material for
manufacture; and as so defined in N.J.S.A. 51:6-1.
The Chief of Police of the Borough of Brooklawn or his designee/representative.
A computerized internet-capable database with hardware and
software compliant to that set by the Chief of Police.
Any person, partnership, corporation, or other entity, whether
permanent or itinerant, who on one or more occasions (through any
means) buys or sells or otherwise exchanges or trades secondhand gold,
silver, precious metals, gems, or jewelry, and includes anyone advertising
the purchase or sale of any of the aforementioned items.
A person or entity that is appointed or designated by the
Chief of Police who is authorized to collect and maintain precious
metal transaction information, or other purchase information as defined
herein, for the Borough of Brooklawn.
A restricted monetary equivalent or script that is issued
by retailers or banks to be used as an alternative to a nonmonetary
gift.
Any business conducted intermittently within the Borough
of Brooklawn or at varying locations.
Any individual natural person, partnership, joint venture,
business, society, associate, club, trustee, trust, corporation, or
unincorporated group, or an officer, agent, employee, servant, factor
or any form of personal representative of any thereof, in any capacity,
acting for self or on behalf of another.
Comprised of gold, silver, platinum and/or their alloys as
defined in N.J.S.A. 51:5-1 et seq., N.J.S.A. 51:6-1 et seq., and/or
N.J.S.A. 51:6A-1 et seq.; gems, gemstones, coins and all forms of
jewelry herein contained.
Individuals and retail sellers, not to include wholesale
transactions or transactions between other merchants.
The exchange of money and the exchange, deposit, pledge,
sale, conveyance or trade of any tangible or intangible article.
Every transaction conducted by a dealer in which precious
metals, or other tangible property, are purchased or exchanged from
or with the public.
Any article previously sold, acquired, exchanged, conveyed,
traded or otherwise formerly owned, including but not limited to scrap
gold, old gold, silver, jewelry, home electronics/audio and visual
equipment, telephones and telephonic equipment, scales, computers,
computer hardware and software, coins, electronic tablets, cameras,
scanners, sporting goods of all kinds, antiques, platinum, all other
precious metals, tools of all kinds, televisions, DVRs, GPS, camcorders,
car stereos, gift cards, furniture, clothing or other valuable articles.
A dealer who has not been in any retail business continuously
for at least six months at any address in the municipality where the
dealer is required to register or who intends to close out or discontinue
all retail business in the Borough of Brooklawn within six months,
or as so defined in N.J.S.A 51:6A-5 and N.J.A.C. 13:47C-1.1.
A.
Initial license application process.
(1)
Every dealer intending on conducting business with the jurisdiction
of the Borough of Brooklawn shall first make application to the Borough
Clerk and shall set forth the name and address of dealer, his or her
age, whether or not he or she is a citizen of the United States and
whether or not he or she has been convicted of a crime, the place
of conviction, and the date thereof.
(2)
A dealer of precious metals, gems or gemstones or second hand goods,
prior to buying, attempting to buy or offering to buy, shall be required
to be fingerprinted and shall consent to an investigation of the applicant's
moral character and business responsibility as deemed necessary by
the Brooklawn Borough Police Department, for the protection of the
public welfare. In the event that the dealer is a business entity
other than a sole proprietorship, the officers in a corporation or
the partners in a partnership (or limited partnership) shall be deemed
to be the applicant(s) who shall be fingerprinted and investigated
in accordance with this chapter.
(3)
Upon initial application to the Borough Clerk, each dealer shall
be provided with an application prescribed by the Brooklawn Borough
Police Department and shall provide the following information on said
application:
B.
Contingency. Upon completion of the investigation, the Chief of Police
shall either approve or deny the license based upon the results of
the Brooklawn Borough Police investigation. No license shall be issued
without the approval of the Chief of Police or his or her designee.
A.
Each application for a dealer of secondhand goods license shall be
accompanied by an annual fee of $200 payable to the Borough Clerk
by January 10 annually.
B.
A license issued under the provisions of this chapter shall not be
transferable and shall terminate on December 31 of the year in which
said license is issued.
C.
No license fee shall be prorated.
A.
Licenses issued under the provisions of this chapter may be revoked
by the Chief of Police after a hearing upon notice to the applicant
for any of the following causes:
(1)
Fraud, misrepresentation, or false statement contained in the application
for license;
(2)
Fraud, misrepresentation, or false statement made in the course of
carrying on the business of purchasing secondhand precious metals,
gems, and jewelry;
(3)
Any violation of this chapter;
(4)
Conviction of any crime or disorderly persons offense involving moral
turpitude; or
(5)
Conducting the business of soliciting or canvassing in an unlawful
manner or in such a manner as to constitute a breach of the peace
or to constitute a menace to the health, safety, or general welfare
of the public.
B.
Notice of the hearing for revocation of a license shall be given
in writing, setting forth specifically the grounds of complaint and
the time and place of hearing. Such notice shall be mailed, postage
prepaid, to the licensee at his last known address at least five days
prior to the date set for the hearing.
[Amended 4-20-2015 by Ord. No. 5-15]
Every dealer within the Borough of Brooklawn shall, upon the
purchase of any precious metals or secondhand goods from the public,
be required to do as follows:
A.
Record on a numbered receipt the name, address and telephone number
of the purchaser; the name, address and telephone number of the seller
or sellers; the time and date of the transaction; the net weight in
terms of pounds Troy, pennyweight (Troy) or kilograms/grams of the
precious metals; fineness in terms of karats for gold, and sterling
or coin for silver, in accordance with N.J.S.A. 51:5-1 et seq., and
N.J.S.A. 51:6-1 et seq. This information is to be documented through
use of an electronic database software system as designated by the
Chief of Police. These records shall be subject to the inspection
of any authorized police officer of the Borough of Brooklawn.
B.
Through the use of applicably required computer equipment, and using the electronic format approved by the Chief of Police, enter all transaction into the electronic database within 48 hours from the date of purchase. The information entered will contain the information in § 102-6 above, plus the following:
(1)
A physical description of the seller;
(2)
The receipt number;
(3)
A full description of the item or items purchased, including, but
not limited to, marks, numbers, dates, sizes, shapes, initials, monograms
and serial numbers;
(4)
The price paid for the item;
(5)
The form must be signed by the seller;
(6)
The form must be legibly initialed by the clerk or the dealer who
made the transaction so as to readily identify that individual;
(7)
A color photograph or color image of the seller's presented
identification. A color photograph or color image of all items sold;
(8)
When photographing or imaging, all items must be positioned in a
manner that makes them readily and easily identifiable;
(9)
Items should not be grouped together when photographing or imaging;
each item will have its own color photograph or color image.
C.
The precious metals are to be made available for inspection by the
Chief of Police of the Borough of Brooklawn for a period of five days
from the date the information required above is received by the Chief
of Police on the approved form. The precious metals shall remain in
the same condition as when purchased and shall not be changed, modified,
melted or disposed of by the purchaser until the five-day period has
expired. During this five-day period, the precious metals shall be
placed in public view at the purchaser's place of business. If
the property is such that it would create a hardship on the dealer
by holding the precious metals for such period, the dealer may present
the property to the Chief of Police in order that it may be photographed
and, if deemed necessary by the Chief of Police, an investigation
be implemented. The Chief of Police has the authority to grant the
dealer a waiver of the requirement under this subsection.
D.
In the event a database failure, or dealer's computer equipment
malfunction, all transaction information is required to be submitted
on paper forms approved by the Chief of Police. In the event that
paper forms are used, the dealer is responsible to enter all transaction
information into the database as soon as possible upon the dealer's
equipment being repaired or replaced, or the database coming back
into service. Failure by the dealer to properly maintain computer
equipment in a reasonable fashion, or failure by the dealer to replace
faulty computer equipment, may result in the dealer being cited for
a violation of this chapter and subsequently being subject to the
penalties for doing so.
E.
Dealer payment to the sellers in cash shall be limited to two transactions
during a seven-day period for the same seller. The seven-day period
will commence on the day of the first transaction and end seven days
after the transaction; i.e., if transaction number one occurs on Monday,
the seven-day period ends on Sunday. Furthermore, no cash payments
shall be made to the same sellers who make more than five transactions
in any given thirty-day period. Sellers making transactions over the
number of prescribed weekly and monthly periods will be paid by the
dealer by means of a bank check drawn from the dealer's business
account.
F.
It shall be the requisite duty of every dealer, and of every person
in the dealer's employ, to admit to the premises during business
hours any member of the Brooklawn Police Department to examine any
database, book, ledger, or any other record on the premises relating
to the purchase of precious metals from the public, as well as the
articles purchased or received, and to take possession of any article
known by the police officer or official to be missing or to have been
stolen, or where the officer or official has probable cause to believe
the article is missing or stolen.
This chapter shall not apply to purchases made by jewelers or
other dealers from wholesalers or other suppliers, but shall only
apply to those purchases made from the public or other retail purchases.
The dealer shall keep records of all wholesale purchases for a period
of six months from the date of such purchase, which records shall
be opened to investigation by the Brooklawn Borough Police Department.
Each licensee shall deliver a bond to the Borough Clerk executed by the applicant as principal with a surety company authorized to do business under the laws of the State of New Jersey as surety. The bond, to be approved by the Borough Attorney, shall be in the penal sum of $10,000, conditioned for the due and proper observance of and compliance with the provisions and requirements of all ordinances of the Borough in force or which may be adopted respecting the conduct of this business and conditioned also that the bond shall be and remain for the benefit of any person or persons who shall have received judgment against the licensee licensed under this chapter by reason of any damage sustained by any such person as a result of the operations of the licensee under this chapter, which damage shall be established by a judgment of a court of proper jurisdiction. Said bond shall contain the following language: "The obligation of this bond shall, in addition to the Borough of Brooklawn, be and remain for the benefit of any person who shall obtain a judgment against obligor, as a result of damage sustained in operation pursuant to any license granted under Chapter 107 of the ordinances of the Borough of Brooklawn. Said bond shall be kept for a minimum of one year from the date of issuance of license and must be renewed annually along with the license. As per state law, every itinerant business must also show proof of bond, issued license in jurisdiction of origin and weights and measures inspection."
No dealer within the Borough of Brooklawn shall purchase and/or
sell any precious metals from any person under the age of 18 years.
Any person, firm or corporation who or which shall violate any of the provisions of this chapter shall, upon conviction thereof, be liable for penalties or any combination thereof as set forth in § 1-15 of the Code of the Borough of Brooklawn, in the discretion of the Judge of the Municipal Court before whom such violation is heard and conviction made. Each day that a violation occurs shall be deemed a separate and distinct violation, subject to the penalty provisions of this chapter. Each violation shall result in an additional ten-day suspension. Any person who is convicted of violating the provisions of this chapter within one year of the date of a previous violation and who was fined for the previous violation may be sentenced by the Court to an additional fine as a repeat offender. The additional fine imposed as a repeat offender shall not be less than the minimum or exceed the maximum fine provided herein, and same shall be calculated separately from the fine imposed for the violation of this chapter.
