@jimford... I just re-read my initial post, I was vague. I hate typing on my phone. I appreciate the police and all they do, I hope I did not come across as a police hater, far from it, as a matter of fact I admire you and fellow officers for the tireless thankless job you have. I realize how overworked and under staffed most police forces are. That's why I made the statement I did, I guess you do care, there's just no way for you to spend the man hours on a home or auto burglary based on other more important crimes, I understand. I just hate the fact that if you have something nice these days you have to take triple precautions to protect it. As for the pawn shops, I still think most are corrupt and promote theft, same with flea markets. When I said police and government went all guns off the street I was referring to stolen and unauthorized possession of a firearm. Not all legally owned guns.
I'm just tired of my stuff getting stolen, and I used to file police reports every time something got stolen, especially if it was expensive. Again sorry for my initial post, should have been a little more descriptive.
Again, Thanks for all you do.

burner, no worries; we had a miscommunication. I agree that our world has become a sad place to be. It's a crying shame how many people feel it's okay to steal, and it's dishonorable to provide LE with information on thieves. Many of our pawn shops, at least around here, are always on the lookout for stolen stuff, and call us any time they think someone is trying to pawn it. In my experience at least, when a pawn shop is tied to stolen merchandise, it's often the work of one or two employees rather than the management. Pawn shops get a lot of disrespect, but a good bit of it is undeserved.

Far too many victims today refuse to pursue prosecution, as long as they get their property returned. That just reinforces that bad behavior. I hate that phrase, "Well, I don't want to get anybody in trouble." I had a case where a cashier got caught using customers' credit accounts; her employer found out and terminated her. The victim, a church pastor, refused prosecution "as long as she repays the church and apologizes." After all, she's just a poor single mom (who was very easy on the eyes, if that mattered?) who needed the rent money and made a 'bad decision', right? My investigation revealed that she had pulled that same stunt at all of her previous jobs, and her 'poor single mom who needs rent money and made a bad decision' story worked every time. She was never prosecuted for any of those felonies, and the situation was never revealed to subsequent employers. When I showed the pastor what I had learned, his wife and secretary convinced him to go ahead with the prosecution. Employees stealing from their jobs are routinely allowed to return the merchandise in lieu of prosecution, and what do you think they do at their next job? Some of our large retail chains refuse -- by corporate policy -- to prosecute shoplifters. Yep, we may be politically correct, but we're paying for it dearly.

Thanks Jim, If we ever meet up I would love to buy you a beer and hear some more stories, I have a few from the recieving end I could share, but I like hearing about the ones that end up bad for the criminal!
Thanks again,
Myles

Its a Catch 22...Without thieves, pawn ships wouldn't exist. Without pawn shops, there would be fewer thieves.

Mr. Ford, I salute you and your agencies efforts. However, those of us who have been the victim of scumbag thieves in other areas have apparently had bad experiences and I for one can tell you your agency is NOT the norm. Having been stationed all over the country and overseas in my 20 years of military service I was robbed 10 times. Only once was anything recovered and only because the suspect (next door neighbors 20 year old son) was wanted for a multitude of other crimes that the police really wanted him for. I can assure you I don't think they wanted to help me out as bad as they wanted him. As far as the insurance companies go, they think us, the victims are out to get them when we report $3000 worth of fishing equipment stolen. The adjuster in the case I mentioned above came right out and said he didn't believe I had that much invested in what was stolen. That was until I showed him the boxes for "ALL" the reels with price tags on them and the pictures of everything. Not one thing was ever recovered that time, including a very old .22 that was passed down to me from my great-grandfather. That hurt the worst of all---It can never be replaced!!

@bulletman, I feel your pain. My home was burglarized a couple years ago, they stole all kinds of stuff, but the one item they took that hurt the most was a pistol my grandfather had left me. It was a Thompson Center Arms Contender, never fired. He won it in a shooting event. Everytime I visited I would ask to see the gun, we would get it out, look it over, and put it away. When he passed away my grandmother gave it to me telling me how much he wanted me to have it. It was beautiful, was in an oak box, red velvet inside, gun was custom engraved with grandpas name and date of event, also had a cougar crouched on a rock engraved on it from Thompson, truly a beautiful gun! Now some greasy scumbag POS has it and it kills me everytime I think about it! Fuc*%#king Thieves!

just noticed when they took the rods the air compressor is missing too. Little 3 gallon electric one.

All my tools and fishing equipment have a secret number engraved on them in a spot that is not real visible. I take pictures of the location of the number, and the whole item. Then that info is entered into an inventory file and saved to flash drive which is locked in my safe. It's a pain to keep up with, but if it's ever stolen, I will have it to show to police.

Here's a story for y'all. A buddy of mine builds custom rods, mostly for offshore charter boats. He got a call from a pawn shop, seems they'd bought a complete set of offshore rods and one had a roller guide that needed to be replaced. My buddy got suspicious by the description of the rods and called the customer that commissioned the builds. Sure enough they had all been stolen. So they go to the pawn shop together, along with a police officer. The shop owner was PO'd and smugly told them since there were no serial numbers on them they couldn't prove anything. My buddy picked up a rod and twisted off the epoxied on buttcap, shook the rod and piece of paper fell out which was the complete build sheet for that rod, including customer information. The customer walked out with his 10 rods, totaling close to $8k in value and the PD arrested the thief shortly afterward.

He had told the customer about hiding the info inside the blanks, but the customer was so busy looking over his new set custom of rods he'd only half-heard it, and thus forgot.

He puts his logo and contact info visible on the outside, but every rod he builds either has the aforementioned info in it, or a reference number on a small slip of paper for lightweight casting builds.

Psyco this sounds like a true success story (the PS owner should have been arrested too!!!). I wish they all turned out as well. I would love to have all the things I had stolen over my ** years returned!!