How Would You Handle This Situation At A LCS?

Thats kind of what I was getting at. They probably wouldnt show up for an hour or two anyway unless they had no other calls. It wasnt too long ago I was a teen myself and I know a lot of them do a lot of bad things, but not all and you would spend the entire day on the phone calling the police if you reported everything you felt may not be on the up and up

Quite frankly I never even thought about calling the authorities to report a possible crime. I was more interested in what everyone thought of either intervening during the sales process (which I thought about briefly but would never do) or talking to the kid afterward outside of the store (which I did).
Didn't mean to make this an us (old farts) vs them (young 'uns) thread!

I probably wouldn't do anything. However, I don't have a problem with anyone that would have stepped in to inform the kid how badly he was getting taken. While it is certainly bad form in most businesses this doesn't sound like a place I would be too concerned about being welcomed back.

I would not interfere with business inside of the shop but I would mention something to the seller outside regarding the lowball price if given the chance. A kid showing up at a pawn/coin/antique shop with three Double Eagles and a Chief Onepapa would most definitely be suspicious and I would suspect theft as well. A kid showing up at the same place with a few common silver half dollars was me about 25 years ago and I find it insulting that someone would be so authoritarian as to call the police over items of an insignificant value with zero evidence of theft

I disagree like the many others above with the idea of calling the police on the basis of pure suspicion. Besides--what do you say to the police dispatcher
when you get them on the line--"I saw a teenager in a mall who has two half dollar coins and one dollar bill that I suspect he might have stolen" ?

PD's have priorities but don't have unlimited staff resources. An emergency call about a teenager in a mall who has two half dollar coins and one dollar bill
that somebody (on the basis of pure personal prejudice) suspects he may have stolen is a call that many departments might just not respond to.

Edit: Noah--Don't "almost feel insulted." Feel every bit of very insulted.

Good question. At first he was very apprehensive. I am 6'2" and 210 lbs and I said, "hey kid, come here for a second". I can only imagine what went through his mind! Especially since many on here think he is a crook!
I then quietly and politely told him not to bring his coins back here to the comic book store in the mall but to take them to the ANA coin dealer across the street. I also told him about what he should be getting for coins such as the ones he just sold. I gave him my card as I had recently met the owner of the LCS across the street and we struck up an immediate friendship....(Probably because I had just spent a couple of hundred bucks in his shop).
I also called the owner of the LCS and let him know what had just transpired so he would be aware of the situation. That way, he can decide for himself if this is legit or the kid is lifting his old man's collection.
I try to stay out of other's business but I at least wanted the kid and the LCS owner to be fully informed (as I could be).
He thanked me, shook my hand and said that he would go to the LCS next time and let the owner know I sent him. Who knows, maybe we will have a new young collector out of all this.
Maybe the LCS owner will remember my helping him and give me that MS SLQ I was eying at the price I offered?
Who knows?

Looking at the mall store owner, I do not see why everyone is hammering him. He is not a LCS, he has overhead and people come to his store to purchase things other than coins. Yes, the offer was low, but this is inventory that could potentially sit on his shelf for a while.

Good for you helping to educate the young man. I just do not see why there is so much vitriol against a store owner doing what he thinks is best for his non-numismatic store.