You are generally safe buying at a pawnshop. The police regularly check, and licensed pawnshop dealers keep careful watch.
Are there stolen items in the pawnshop? Yes, but if they were not identified in the period of consignment, the police long before would have told the owner to forget recovery and collect the insurance (usual with bicycles, the average home music equipment, tools, etc.). Insurance companies won't bother if a bought item is identified as stolen unless it is worth a lot of money. The costs of going through the recovery process are too great.
If you buy in Quebec, or any area preserving the French Civil Code, the buyer, if he bought from a licensed dealer, is assumed to have bought in good faith and must be reimbursed if the original owner wants the item back. Repossession would be very unlikely.