Preventing Theft and Recovering Stolen Property
It is too late for me to get my stuff back, but here are some tips to protect yourself in the future
Preventing Theft
The main key is making it difficult or inconvenient for crooks to steal your stuff. If they perceive that your house is more risky, they'll move on. Unfortunately, there is no perfect way to stop these guys:
1) Motion detector lights - most thieves aren't scared by the lights, but they also don't want to be easily seen by a passerby. Light up your driveway and any areas of traffic. The police also suggested that I put motion detector lights inside my garage.
2) Keep your doors and windows locked, and your garage door shut unless it is in your view or you are working in there. We unwittingly left our door open, but doors can also go back up without you knowing it if there is something blocking the way (like a tipped over shovel). Make sure that you check your garage door(s) before you go to bed each night. (Side note: I am going to test out a product called a Garage Butler, that is supposed to shut your garage door automatically if your forget to. I'll post my review of it later).
3) Keep valuable items out of view from the street. What criminals can't see can't tempt them. My stuff was behind a wall, so our guy was pretty bold, but if you have your golf clubs by the front of the garage in plain sight, it may be too tempting to pass by.
4) Form a neighborhood watch. My old neighborhood had volunteers who would drive around the neighborhood until about 1 am looking for suspicious activities. Crime dropped dramatically in the area. You can organize this with your friends, neighbors, church groups and other organizations so it doesn't become a huge burden on just a few people.
5) Watch your neighbors house, and ask them to watch yours, even when you are in town. Get to know your neighbors well and get their phone number. If you trust them enough, share a key with them. If they see your windows or garage door open, or something left out that shouldn't be, they can call you and let you know, or even take care of it themselves. We joked in our old neighborhood that our best security system was our great friends and neighbors straight across the street because they saw everything that was happening.
Got more ideas? Let me know below.
Recovering Stolen Items
Whether we get the law changed or not, the database managed by the police and pawn shops is still a very good thing. However, it only works if you can give them serial numbers or identifying marks. Here are a few things I've found along the way.
1) Write down all of your serial numbers and keep them in a place your can easily find them. We had recently moved and I couldn't find the serial number for my bike, although I had it. When I spotted it on eBay, through a stroke of luck I found the contact info of the person who I had bought it from, he contacted his insurance company who luckily still had the number. Unfortunately for me, it was far too late because of the law (even though it was around 45 days later).
I have also emailed all of my serial numbers to some remote storage that I have set up. There are different resources through Google and .Mac to do this sort of thing. This way, no matter where I move, or where I go, or even in the case of disaster, I still have the numbers record and proof.
1a) You may also want to report the serial numbers to your insurance company. This almost saved me, because the previous owner of my bike had done this, and the insurance company still had record. This also may help you when making a claim.
2) Mark items that don't have serial numbers. The police officer I spoke to after this happened suggested using your Social Security Number -- THIS IS A VERY BAD IDEA. Instead I suggest you just put your name and phone on it in a way that a thief can't remove.
3) Report the burglary to the police immediately and give them the serial numbers of the stolen items. They can then enter this into the database and give you some sort of chance to recover the items if pawned. However, if it is beyond 10 days, your chances are going to drop dramatically. (Note: pawned items are required to be held 30 days, but what thief is going to pawn something, vs selling it?)
4) Watch eBay, Craigslist, KSL.com, etc. You may also want to check the local pawn shops. I found my bike on eBay, and this is a popular place for people to get rid of stuff. One thing to note, stolen items shipped to another state becomes a federal crime. Pawn shops also like to unload their stuff here.
Tips specific for eBay:
a) eBay lets you save searches and it will notify you if any like items appear. What could have been my fatal mistake was I didn't have my search broad enough. The guy put spaces in between the lettering on "200 SCI" so my automated search didn't catch it. Luckily I did a manual search of "Kestrel 200".
b) If you do find your stolen items, if you bid on it you can request the seller's contact information.
WARNING: When you request their information, it also sends your contact information to them, so you may want to be sure you are comfortable doing that, or at the very least chose a phone number that can't be easily traced back to you, if you fear retribution. On grandcentral.com you can get a free phone number that can redirect to your real number. (I'm a little disappointed in eBay's stance on this, but only a police officer can report to them a stolen item, and then eBay will assist in getting the information to the police officer. Given the speed that things come and go, and how long that will likely take, there is a good chance your bike will be long gone before they take action.)
c) Once you have a phone number you can do a free reverse search on a variety of phonebook sites and get their address.
d) Keep pressing the police if you do find it. Although the SLCPD was very helpful, I imagine that in their view a single stolen bike isn't a big enough ticket item to get excited about. You are likely going to have to do much of the legwork yourself.
5) Do a pawn shop crawl. Make sure before you do this, that you get any identifying information of your property to the police. Pawn shops complain that people will come in, check out the serial number and then go and report it as stolen. Don't let them trap you because you reported the serial numbers after you found the bike.
Also, take a camera, or cell phone with a camera with you. I heard a story about how a lady went into a pawn shop, asked to use their bathroom, identified her son's bike in the backroom, took a picture of it with her phone and the police were able to come and search the place.
6) Photo document all that you own. In the event that there isn't a serial number or the thief has knocked it off, it can help to prove that it is actually yours.
7) Don't touch anything before the police arrive. Stay away from door knobs and other surfaces. They may be able to finger print and associate your items back to the crook.
Tips specifically for bikes:
a) Write on some small slips of paper your name, contact information and some variation of "If you find this note, this bike has been stolen..." and put it inside your handlebars and/or in your head tube. In the chance that they chop up your bike, or knock off the serial number this will help you identify your bike.
b) Write on the inside of your wheel set with a sharpie or paint pen your name and contact info, either under the rim tape or wherever. I didn't think of it before hand, but my wheel set had a serial number as well that I should have written down.
c) If your bike is particularly valuable, consider storing it inside your home. This one doesn't fly so well, especially if you don't want to get grime and grease on your carpet. It seems like no matter how clean you keep your bike, it still happens.
Good luck. Let me know if you have other great ideas, and I'll add them.
