Gold Business Owner Charged with Violating Burnsville City Ordinances

The owner of a gold-buying business in Burnsville has run afoul of city ordinances requiring him to record sales, report those sales to police and take photographs of his customers and the items they sell to him, according to new charges filed in Dakota County.

Daniel Robert Larson, 45, of Roseville, who owns Gold Rush Inc. in the Burnsville Center, is charged with failing to record sales or receipts; failing to report sales or receipts to police via an automated reporting system; failing to photograph customers; failing to photograph items that he purchased from customers; and failing to post a required sign notifying customers that all transactions are recorded and reported daily to police.

Each misdemeanor charge carries a maximum penalty of 90 days in jail and a $1,000 fine.

According to the criminal complaint, Burnsville police became aware late last year that Larson wasn’t complying with city ordinances governing secondhand sales and purchases, including a law requiring him to report sales daily via an automated system to police.

A Burnsville police detective checked the automated system and discovered that “the transactions reported by Gold Rush Inc. were not consistent with a business that solely purchases precious metals,” according to the complaint.

Between Jan. 1 and Nov. 29, 2011, Gold Rush Inc. did not report any sales on a number of days, and there had been no reporting at all since Aug. 4, the complaint says.

Three officers visited Larson’s kiosk on Nov. 29 and expressed concern that he wasn’t complying with city ordinances. Larson told them that he had complied with the reporting ordinance until August, when he upgraded his computers and couldn’t continue reporting because of software incompatibilities, according to the complaint.

Larson told police that he was having trouble finding hardware for his computer that would run the reporting software. He said he had contacted a representative of the reporting company, who told him that he was no longer required to report his transactions; however, when police subsequently contacted that person, she denied telling Larson that he didn’t have to comply with the requirement, and said the latest version of the software was compatible with Larson’s computer.

Police asked to see some of Larson’s records, some of which were missing required information, including the amount paid to customers and customers’ full names and driver’s license numbers. An officer noted that Larson was not photographing or videotaping each customer as required by city ordinance.

Larson admitted not taking the required photos, and asked police if he was “supposed to take a picture of a 70-year-old lady,” according to the complaint. Police told him that every customer has to be photographed, regardless of age.

Larson told police that he planned to address the issues raised on Nov. 29, including sending the required information to the reporting system and videotaping his customers.

Larson is scheduled to be arraigned on the charges Feb. 1 in Dakota County District Court in Apple Valley.