The business model of a pawnbroker includes the risk of handling stolen goods. Even if you pay for stolen goods, they don't belong to you. This is recognised i

The business model of a pawnbroker includes the risk of handling stolen goods. Even if you pay for stolen goods, they don't belong to you. This is recognised in any basic assessment of the business domain of pawnbroking, e.g. wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pawnbrokers https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pawnbrokers So it's not really correct to say the pawnbrokers were out of pocket - dealing with this problem is an expected part of their business. Like other commenter, I'm quite surprised by the requirement for the author to pay in this regard - she seems to have chosen to pay rather than wait out a police seizure. Since she's a writer, I'd guess her income is quite dependent on having a computer.