Often, I am approached for guidance safeguarding against burglaries and enhancing the chances of retrieving stolen goods. Over the past few weeks, I have shared a series of articles focusing on strategies to prevent being a target and stopping break-in attempts. These strategies are based on four core principles. Deter, Impede, Alert and Summon.
The final piece to this series is best practices for retrieving your property if it is stolen.
Record serial numbers and take photographs of valuables. Before smartphones and digital cameras, it was relatively tedious to go through your home and document all of your valuables in case they were eventually stolen. Taking this preventative step is an important activity though because serial numbers of stolen items can be entered on police databases after a break-in and subsequently recovered if ever turned into a pawn shop or checked by an officer who has found suspected stolen property. With a smartphone, this documentation process is relatively quick and easy by simply taking photographs of any valuable items in your home as well as any attached serial numbers.
Doing this before a break-in occurs can make insurance claims and recovery of the items much easier. It also makes it easier to obtain a conviction for possession of stolen property when it can be proven that the item in an offender’s possession is in fact stolen.
If you own firearms, it is especially important to accurately record or photograph long gun serial numbers because there is no longer any long gun registry.
Sergeant Rob Welsman
Hanna Detachment Commander