Police property rooms are where recovered valuables are stored before going to auction or being destroyed. That’s because the rightful owners can’t be identified unless the property is marked with a unique identifier and/or there is a record of the serial numbers.
You Can’t Point To It and Say It’s Yours
Law enforcement professionals do not operate on the honor system. You have to be able to prove that a piece of recovered property definitely belongs to you. Unless that piece of property held in police custody is marked with a unique identifier and/or you have a record of the serial numbers, you most likely will never get it back.
Owner Applied Number Info – California Rural Crime Prevention Task Force (crcptf.org)
Operation Identification and My Property ID Registry
Developed in the 1960s and validated by 378 law enforcement agencies between 1974 and 1978, including the NYPD, Operation ID is the only police-endorsed security system.
GGD-79-54 Department of Justice Should Explore the Feasibility of a Uniform Identification System for Marking Personal Property (gao.gov)
My Property ID Registry is a police-accepted, internet-based enhancement of Operation ID that works worldwide to repatriate lost and stolen property. Everything you need comes in an envelope and is automatically tied to a globally accessible database for serial numbers.
Buy – My Property ID Registry
