Brunswick County, NC Business Licensing & Operations: Pawnbrokers (2026)

Sec. 1-5-4 of the Brunswick County Code, adopted June 7, 2010, sets reporting duties for pawnshops doing business in the unincorporated areas of the county. Within ninety days of the section's adoption, every pawnshop owner or operator had to put in place an electronic inventory tracking system capable of delivering all statutorily required information by computer to the entity the county sheriff's department designates to receive it. On an ongoing basis, the owner or operator must upload information on every item purchased or pawned within two business days of receiving the goods.

The requirement dovetails with separate state pawnbroker recordkeeping statutes; the county's role is to designate the receiving system through the sheriff's office and enforce the reporting deadline locally. 00 for each separate offense, and each day of noncompliance counts as its own separate offense, so a prolonged lapse in uploading compounds daily. The section covers pawnshops doing business in unincorporated Brunswick County; a pawnshop located inside Leland, Southport, Shallotte or any of the county's other incorporated towns falls under that town's own licensing and reporting ordinance instead, since Sec. 1-5-4 by its own terms reaches only the unincorporated areas.