Fresno police are busting pawn shops allegedly buying stolen gold.
The Fresno Gold Stop was one of three pawn shops busted on Tuesday.
Police recovered thousands of dollars worth of gold in the sting operation.
Police arrested the owners of the three businesses and charged them all with intentionally accepting stolen gold.
Members of Fresno's Burglary Task Force posed as thieves selling stolen gold and then busted the shop owners.
Sgt. Tim Tiejen with the Fresno Police Department said, "IF YOU go to a normal pawn shop on any given day, they're going to ask for your ID and have you fill out some paperwork and have you finger print. And so they're going to go through some administrative steps they have to do to accept that gold. And so at this point, they didn't do any of that. They just took the gold, gave us cash and sent us on our way."
The Fresno Burglary Task Force is auditing all the shops in the Fresno.
Police say they're hoping the trail will lead them to the thieves selling the gold.