Pawnshops a lifeline to customers down on luck

One customer needed gas money to get to work. Another was unloading a bike so he could follow his wife across the country. The wife of another left him without so much as a note. He needed money for his baby?s formula.

“There?s a story with everything that comes in,” said Richard Rivkin, owner of Carroll County Jewelry & Loan pawnshop, with stores in Westminster and Eldersburg.