Recording/Marking Your Stuff

wdk450

Well-known member
Gang:
I had an Aha moment this morning, and some of you more high tech than me might have already done this, but I am sure it could be valuable to all of us.

The thought is to take a smartphone or digital camera, take photos of our valuable, easily stolen stuff; including photos of model/serial number plates and distinctive marks, stickers, etc. on the items; and store these photos in free cloud data storage, like Google Drive. If your stuff gets stolen or destroyed in a fire or disaster, the info is out there in the cloud for you to download. Photos of purchase receipts could be included for valuation. This could even include big ticket stuff like your car, truck, atv, boat or motorcycle.

The second thing is to buy a small electric engraver and engrave your small electronics, computer, toolboxes, etc. with your driver's license number and state like this example: AB123456 Ca. (Driver's license number and state abbreviation). Law enforcement recognizes this and has easy access to finding you from this identification. Just a quick story on this: One morning I was awoken at 6:30 am by a call from the Sacramento County Sheriffs asking me if I was missing a toolbox. I kept my toolbox (engraved with my driver's license and state as above) in my van in my driveway, and as far as I knew it was there. Well, it turned out that thieves found my van door unlocked during the night, took my toolbox, and were caught somewhere else by the Sheriffs. I got my tools and toolbox back.
 

jayc

Texas-South Chapter Leaders
I would second Bill's suggestion. As a long-time Police Detective, I can't tell you the number of times I have had to release a suspect, along with property I was sure was stolen because the original and lawful owner could not identify the property. Some police departments will loan an engraving tool to residents to mark their property. Even painting tools with a particular color of paint can result in recovery of your property. A large well-known construction company once painted their tool with a shade of blue paint, allowing us to recover many tools, both hand tools and power tools.
 
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