You want to find stolen property online if you’ve recently lost yours to burglars or even pickpockets. Perhaps, your small town has had terrible problems with break-ins, and people down the street are pulling on door handles, breaking into cars, scoping out houses, and going through storage rooms, to mention a few.
In many cases, the police arrest several groups of adults and teenagers (apparently taking the stolen property to someone else). These arrests are not enough, and more people go ahead with the act, not minding their criminal record if they get caught.
How to find stolen property online
If you’ve been a burglary victim, this publication provides ways you could follow to try to figure out how to recover your stolen stuff.
1. Use Stolen 911
Stolen 911 was created by Private Investigator Marc Hinch to help you find your stolen property. This website has helped victims in the US, Canada, and the UK to get their stuff back since 2007.
Stolen 911 lets you create an internet fingerprint of your stolen property online for free. Your listed item is then indexed on major search engines, including Google, Yahoo, and Bing. The posted stolen item is listed on various social media platforms and Stolen 911 for 1 year.
If you can’t find your item after 1 year, you can relist it again for free for another year until it’s found. Your listed stolen property is viewable by anyone without having to sign up on Stolen 911. Visit Stolen 911 at https://stolen911.com/.
2. Call your local police department
It’s important to enlist the help of a police department. Contact your local authorities and file a police report. Be descriptive, including the number of items stolen, date, time, and place.
If possible, include pictures of your stolen property. Enter the serial numbers and markings you left on the item to help the police identify them quickly.
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The police may pay you a visit to investigate and follow up. Note that the value of your item determines the attention it gets. Cops won’t give all the time to low-valued items since it takes lots of resources to trace stolen property. Also, the data you provide determines the chance of finding your item.
Ensure to call the police weekly for progress updates. There are other cases like yours, so make sure to keep yours fresh in their minds.
3. Check pawnshops
Locate the pawn shops in your city/town and the surrounding areas. In many cases, burglars use pawn shops to get rid of stolen property fast for the money.
If you find your stolen property at the pawnshop, don’t tell the pawnshop they’re yours. Note that pawnshops pay for the stolen items, and may not even be aware that they are stolen. Just tell the dealer you’re interested, take a brief walk outside, and notify the police that you’ve spotted your stolen belongings. Let the police take it up from there.
4. Check stolen stuff on LeadsOnline
Houston police suggest using LeadsOnline.com, according to ABC13, to find your stolen items online. Police generally use the internet when looking for stolen stuff to make it easier for them.
A website like LeadsOnline is a database keeping a record of your property. Police officers then leverage it, alongside an internal search of pawn shop purchases to track your stolen items.
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5. Search Craigslist and eBay
You want to search popular consumer-based e-commerce sites like eBay or Craigslist where your stolen property could be listed for sale. Thieves easily sell stolen stuff on online classifieds and shops to unsuspecting buyers.
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Make sure to search eBay for new listings of your items. Narrow down the search by going to the categories your item will be possibly listed. If you find your stolen property on the site, print out a copy of the sale page complete it along with the profile information of the seller, and notify the police.
6. Search with social media
Social media is a powerful option for recovering your stolen property, especially if it’s a larger item such as a car or bike.
Reach out to friends and family through your profile to help locate your stolen item. Share pictures of the item on local Facebook groups created for buying and selling so that local consumers can help to identify or stay away if they come across the stolen property.
