Waynesville, MO Business Licensing & Operations: Pawnbrokers (2026)

Section 700.140 of the Waynesville Municipal Code requires every pawnbroker, secondhand dealer and junk dealer to keep, at their place of business, a written or electronic register describing all property taken, purchased or received. Each entry must include any serial number on the item, the time of the transaction, and the seller's name, age, nationality, color and address, down to the street and number if the seller lives inside the City, plus the amount paid or loaned, the interest charged, and when any loan falls due.

The register itself must be kept clean and legible, and every entry has to go in within one hour of the item being received or purchased, in ink or electronically, and can never be erased, obliterated or defaced afterward. On request, and consistent with State law, the dealer must hand the Chief of Police or a Waynesville law enforcement officer a legible, correct copy from that register covering any property received, deposited or purchased, along with a description of who left or sold it. The one exception: dealers do not need that seller description for goods bought from manufacturers or wholesalers with an established place of business, or from an open bankruptcy-stock sale, or from another established dealer, so long as the purchase is backed by a bill of sale or similar proof shown to the Chief of Police, the Chief of Detectives, or any officer who asks for it.