Jewelry has always been a favorite target of thieves, but Target 11 discovered that it may be even more so now that burglars have found a new way to get rid of the jewelry.

Target 11 began investigating after receiving a call from a North Side woman who was the victim of a burglary. She said the thieves only took gold jewelry.

She began contacting Internet gold companies and discovered that many had no way of identifying stolen jewelry.

Target 11 also contacted a host of mail-in companies and discovered that some of them require customers to sign a waiver and provide identification, but most need only a name and an address. That's it. There are relatively few questions asked. Even police admitted it's an easy out for burglars.

"There's really no law or ordinance as far as I know that we can enforce what they're selling or buying or make them report to us so that would be a loophole in the system, " said Pittsburgh police Sgt. Kevin Gasiorowski.

While those mail-in companies appear to operate with little restriction, it's a much different story for gold dealers in the city of Pittsburgh. Eddie Lowy owns Banner Coin Exchange. Under the law, he's required to log every transaction, notify police and hold the jewelry for 30 days. Lowy said he supports the restrictions and he believes the restrictions should apply to all companies, even the Internet mail-in operations.

"I'm saying that for the evil element out there, this has been a boom for them," said Eddie Lowy.

The problem was such a concern in one state that it prompted lawmakers to take action. Florida passed legislation requiring mail-in companies to follow strict guidelines. The companies must notify police of the transactions, photograph the jewelry and create a database for police to view the items. The companies are also required to hold the jewelry for 10 days before melting it.

"The same thing happened with copper. When the copper was high, we had a spike in copper-related burglaries. Now that copper is low, we don't see as many. So as the price goes up we will see more burglaries with gold, specifically gold," Gasiorowski said.

The new Florida law goes into effect in October. It also requires Internet companies to hold jewelry for 10 days before melting it down. Cash4gold, a Florida company that worked with law enforcement officials to develop the new law, said it would like to see some type of federal regulation that would apply to all companies.