News release from the Fort Wayne Police Department:
New Property Form to Help Protect Victims of Burglary and Theft
(July 29, 2015) – The Fort Wayne Police Department’s Detective Bureau has created a new form to help citizens properly document their personal property. This will assist the owner, law enforcement, and insurance companies in the event of a burglary or theft.
With burglaries and thefts being a problem nationwide, detectives are many times stymied in their attempts to recover lost and stolen personal property because the owner has failed to properly document his or her valuables.
Deputy Chief of Investigative Services Paul Shrawder states, “It is not at all unusual for our officers and detectives to recover items stolen only to find that the victim failed to properly document their property making it impossible for us to return it, or to effectively bring charges against perpetrators.”
A detailed description of your property, including its value and any serial numbers, is vital for the police to assist in the recovery of your items if they are stolen from your home or car. It would also be of great assistance to your insurance company should your property be lost in a fire.
The FWPD recommends using this form, or going to https://www.leadsonline.com/main/index.php and using the ReportIt feature, to record the identification and value of your valuable property for the police and for insurance claims.
Many times an item might not have a serial number issued by the manufacturer. In these circumstances it is recommended that the owner mark items in a way that is unique, giving law enforcement additional means of identifying a victim’s property. Jewelry can be photographed if the owner does not wish to mark it.
The form can be found on the Fort Wayne Police Department’s web site FWPD.org under the Crime Prevention link or downloaded here.
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