Police: Document possessions, in event of theft

Chris Stiltner learned the hard way how important it is to document your belongings.

The 21-year-old Albemarle County man was the victim of an auto break-in last year where thieves took his GPS, iPod and the vehicle programmer to his truck. He was able to get all of the items back because the thieves were caught hours after the theft and his items were distinctively marked.

“I didn’t think anything like this would ever happen to me,” Stiltner said. “I was mad, I was angry and I was a little unnerved by the whole thing. You just never think someone is going to break into your car when you live in a nice neighborhood.”

When a house or vehicle is broken into, it’s up to police to solve the crime and return stolen property back to the victim.

But it’s up to the property owner to make sure they have documentation to prove the items belong to them.

“If the homeowner cannot prove that a recovered television belongs to him then we can’t turn it over,” said Albemarle County police Detective Mark Belew. “The biggest thing that hampers us is people do not keep records of their items.”

Each year, Albemarle and Charlottesville police recover hundreds of items stolen from homes and automobiles.

If the original owners can’t be properly identified, the items are turned over for sale and the proceeds go to police department coffers.

But police say they would much rather see the property go back to the people it belongs to.

“We actually keep items as long as we can and attempt to find the rightful owner,” said Albemarle police Lt. Greg Jenkins. “But if we can’t find the owners, then it goes into the annual county auction.”

Jenkins said there are no hard numbers on the percentage of recovered goods returned to the owners, but he estimates that up to 60 percent of those goods are unclaimed because there is no way to positively identify the owner.

Police say criminals are smart enough to wipe items clear of memory and clean computers in an effort to hide their crimes.

“Just because the GPS system looks like yours doesn’t mean you can take it home with you,” Belew said. “You can’t always turn on the GPS, hit the home button and have the right address come up. Criminals have become smarter about that.”

Last April, a variety of unclaimed tools, computer equipment, iPods, cameras and other items were sold at county auction.

The items brought in $421, said Hugh M. Gravitt III, purchasing agent for Albemarle County. The money went back into the police department’s operating budget.

The Charlottesville Police Department also turns over unclaimed property, but people can purchase it in a variety of ways, said Jennifer Luchard, procurement and risk management services manager for the city.

Interested buyers can look over unclaimed property and other city surplus items up for sale on the first working Friday of each month and at the city’s annual auction.

Some items are even placed online for auction, Luchard said.

“We’ve learned which items sell best online and which sell better in the warehouse sales or at the auction,” Luchard said. “It’s been trial and error and finding out what works best for a lot of these things.”

Last year, sales of the police department’s surplus and unclaimed property brought in an estimated $4,655.

Although the city’s auction is normally held in September, there is currently not one scheduled for this year, Luchard said.

Sgt. Steve Dillon with the city police said detectives make every attempt to find owners of recovered property.

“The majority of unclaimed property we see is bicycles and scooters,” Dillon said. “We always have a lot of those.”

Most of the recovered items sold are not in the best condition and they’re all sold as is, officials said.

Items such as bikes and mopeds are sometimes sold in bulk and used only for parts.

And if there are no buyers, then the city and county can donate the items to various charities that meet state requirements, or send them to the landfill, Luchard said.

“We do everything we can to sell the items,” Luchard said. “The last thing we want to do is to put it in the landfill.”

Each year, law enforcement agencies around the state turn over some jewelry and foreign monies to go toward the state’s literary fund. The fund uses revenues from criminal fines, fees and forfeitures, unclaimed property and lottery winnings to fund low-interest loans for school construction.

The program was established by state legislators in 1810 and is maintained by the Virginia Department of the Treasury.

Area projects on the literary fund’s priority waiting list are Fluvanna County High School, Dillwyn Lower Elementary School and Dillwyn Upper Elementary School, according to the Virginia Department of Education’s website.

Although Stiltner was able to recover his stolen items, he said there was still a lesson to be learned from the theft and it’s one he’s passed along to family and friends.

He now has a record of all serial numbers kept in a locked safe and has placed markings on all of his important property.

“I’m a family guy and I’ve spread the word about this,” Stiltner said. “We’ve learned a lot of lessons from this and I’ve tried to pass them along.”