Here's the first problem: if you come into my pawn shop with a counterfeiting machine and you tell me that you need to sell your counterfeiting machine because you need cash, I'm going to just look at you and not say anything until it dawns on you just what the trouble with your position is. I don't care if we're standing there for days looking at each other while the stars wheel around us, I'm going to wait until you figure it out because I want to know how long that'll take and because I'll really enjoy that moment.

Trying to then sweeten the deal by also offering me some of the counterfeit money you printed with this counterfeiting machine of yours is just going to set off another round of staring.

Second, if you don't come into my pawn shop, and you won't because I don't have a pawn shop, you may have the same problem with the people at whatever pawn shop you try, although they probably won't be willing to stare at you as long as I will.

Third, if you happen to choose a pawn shop that is the one featured in the reality TV show, "Hardcore Pawn," then you will have chosen possibly the most famous and heavily trafficked pawn shops in the world in order to try to sell your counterfeiting machine. One that is on television. One in which the transactions are all recorded because they may be on television.

The Secret Service was already on to this guy, so maybe his selection of American Jewelry and Loan in Detroit didn't make any difference in the long run. But the fact remains that this is the place he selected. He apparently didn't actually bring the machine in with him, but he did offer to sell it (and some fake cash) to Les Gold, the owner, and said he would bring it in later.

Maybe the guy didn't know he would be on camera because he doesn't watch reality TV, you may be saying. Can't blame him for that. No, I couldn't, but he did at some point learn about the reality TV show, that point being at the very latest when he signed a waiver form agreeing to be on the reality TV show in a segment depicting him breaking the law.

I don't use italics a lot here but I think these are justified.