- DALLAS -- High gasoline prices are causing some people to take desperate
measures.
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- Pawn shops say their business is increasing,
with some customers saying they're selling things to buy gas.
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- Gas prices are climbing again, with most
stations prices hovering at, or just below $3.00 a gallon. For some people
the high fuel prices are overwhelming.
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- "We just have customers come in
and have to tell us that they need money 'till the end of the week, for
gas to get back and forth to work," said pawn shop owner, Gerald Costner.
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- Everything from high end jewelry, to
name brand purses, and televisions pawn shop owners say they are seeing
it all come in. They say customers are frustrated and have no place to
go to get extra cash for gas.
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- "Some of the construction people
tell us they are having to pawn their tools to buy gas, but when they pawn
their tools they can't go out and work in the construction business 'cause
their tools are in pawn. So it kind of a catch-22," Costner said.
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- Mary Rodriguez has worked at the Casa
View Pawn Shop for five years. She says she's seen people of all ages coming
in looking for help.
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- "We've always had a clientele of
the young kids, or middle age kids, and now we're getting an older generation.
Which, it just seems wrong that they have to pawn things just to get gas,
or ya know, to make ends meet on things like that."
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- As prices continue to rise at the pumps,
many motorists say they don't see things getting better anytime soon, for
the consumer.
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- "It is frustrating, but the thing
is they know they can get away with it, because people need gas,"
Rodriguez said.
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- At Casa View Pawn, the owner says they've
seen the increase in numbers over the past couple months.
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