As a dealer or repair shop it is really difficult in many places to determine whether a saw is stolen or not. In Alaska I have to make a request with the local State Troopers to have them run the number. I am at their mercy if they have time to do it, and frankly I don't have time to check every saw that comes in. Stihl does have a method to flag stolen saws by the serial number, but the theft victim has to take the step of reporting the machine to their local Stihl dealer so it can get in the system.
The problem that Bryce has is that he (according to the letter nctreeman got) is operating in a manner that is probably pissing off the neighbors and the city. A simple look at Marysville's zoning map says he's in a residential zoned area. I bet there is more to this story behind them busting his shop. You can look up his shop on Google and look at the Google maps view of his place. I looked at a 2015 view and it looks like his stash has grown significantly since the 2013 Google earth view. Unfortunately, his woes are probably not over. His employment and accounting records are probably going to be next.
I agree - that's why I bought a house in the sticks where you can pretty much do what you want.
The local township and county morons will go after some people, but it has to be really bad and lots of complaints.
Or ... like many small towns ...
You just need to piss off the wrong person with some connections to the local self appointed dictators.
One thing I would never do if I was in Bryce's situation ... is have people bring stuff to my place of biz or residence.
That opens you up to all kinds of possible chicanery by both crooks on the street, and crooks in the local gubbment.
I'd split the thing into two pieces if I was selling that kind of volume.
Keep the local business acquisitions and such on one side.
Keep the walk-in sellers at a completely different location and isolate that portion of it.
Every person bringing something in would be required to produce ID, and I'd keep the purchase records in case the police decide to investigate what I'm doing ... that way you've got a bullet proof paper trail of every purchase you make with a valid ID attached to each.
That's the way the local scrapyards do it.