Stolen Gear - A Word To The Wise

A TFF member PM'd me and told me that some low-life broke into his garage and stole 5 Abu reels on ProAngler rods.
So, that brings up a question. Does everyone have the serial numbers on their equipment recorded? The LE agencies and the pawn shops have a network where as they can check serial numbers on anything that is brought in to see if it is stolen. It works. I had a pistol returned to me that was stolen out of my truck at an Austin night club and recovered by San Antonio PD.
There's nothing worse than a thief.

Do reels even have serial numbers? I have taken pictures of the serial numbers for my lawnmower, plastic kayaks and a few other things.

I havn't checked all of mine, but the Abu bait casters do. It's on the bottom of the foot. If there is no s/n, I would use an etcher to engrave my DL# or even your initials on the bottom. I did that with a lot of my tools. There is nothing anyone can do with your DL number so it's safe to do. Just don't use your SSN, obviously.

"Broke into a garage to steal fishing gear"?

That sounds odd, which makes me think it was a neighbor, or some kid who walks by regularly.

Otherwise, if it was a common burglar, it could have been someone who wanted to steal bigger items, and the fishing gear was just a bonus.

As to the question, I haven't noticed serial numbers on any of my gear.

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I just checked a Curado and a Chronarch and there are no numbers on them either. There is, however, room to engrave some kind of identifying mark and that along with a pic of it on your cell phone might get it back in the even it's stolen. Certainly worth the time to do that unless you just have a lot of cash to burn.

Just before Christmas 1999, I had just sold a boat and had all my tackle, rods, reels etc... in the house when one of the aforementioned "Low Lifes" stole all of my fishing gear, guns, bow, jewelry, TVs, VCRs---You get the picture. I started going around to all the local pawn shops to see if I could spot any of it. I had told one of the shop owners what I was looking for and why. He had the audacity to ask me, "if I would re-pay him the money he was out if he bought them from someone"!! I asked him if he thought I would have been robbed if pawn shops did not exist. Don't get me wrong, there are many shop owners that run a completely legit business but there are those that do not. One that I am aware of buys stolen goods which he never enters into the state required system and puts them in a storage building. Once he has a trailer load he then travels out of state to flea-markets and sells this stuff.

I would be looking at having him busted for possession of stolen goods..

I mark all my equipment with an ultraviolet pen with my mark and initials. Thieves can't see it, but it stands out like a sore thumb with a blacklight.

There is a difference between a gun and rod and reel. The police/government want all guns off the street, especially a stolen gun. They will do more work in locating a stolen gun over a stolen fishing pole.
I own a landscape business and have had more equipment stolen over the years than you could imagine, I have never had a single piece of equipment stolen returned or recovered. The police do not care about your stolen property as long as they can't be hurt by it. And as for pawn shops, 80% are in the business of selling stolen goods and do not follow the rules. I hate thieves and pawn shops! Good luck recovering your stolen items once they are gone and have fun dealing with your scumbag insurance company after the fact! They are just as bad as the thieves that steal your stuff!

burner 42, are you a troll? Your post is incredibly inaccurate, and I have to wonder why you would post such nonsense.

No sorry, did not mean to come across that way. It's just that I have had a lot of lawn equipment stolen, and my home recently burglarized. It got so bad I had to sell 6 pickup trucks and trailers and start using box vans (best thing I ever did)to keep them from stealing equipment. I stopped reporting single incidents to police because it was such a pain. One of my thefts they broke into our warehouse, metal building, cut a large hole in side and stole $65k in equipment, nothing recovered, another time they stole an entire truck, it was caught on video, it took 5 days for the detective working my case to get back to me after I contacted him to let him know I had some video, then never called again to tell if it helped or not, or return my calls. It did not help because we didn't get anything back again. Then my insurance company pays me half of what the equipment was worth. I just hate thieves and hate the fact that there is so much crime the police can't keep up and insurance companies can't play fair. It sure won't hurt to put serial numbers on your items, but don't get your hopes up. I live in Dallas in Casa Linda, a very nice neighborhood, and all my contracts are in that area too. An area that you would never expect this type of crime. I'm sure you will have better luck in smaller towns with the PD and crime, i am speaking from Dallas PD experience. They stay pretty busy. Again didn't mean to come across as a troll just sharing my experiences with thieves, stolen items and how it went for me. You can see all my other posts are positive and fishing related, I'll keep them that way.

Broke into your garage and stole some rods & reels. I, uh, just could not understand that. That was interesting

Troll or otherwise, I have to agree. I have had every vehicle I have ever owned broken into and everything you can imagine stolen, stereo, tonneau cover, tailgate off my F250, fishing tackle, and a pistol stolen out of the console of my truck. Guess which item was recovered and returned to me.
I was told by police that the pawn shops do use the serial number ID system, but only on large/expensive items like appliances and stereos, and of course firearms. The only question that remains is, is the pawn shop honest, and you have no way to know.
The only real advantage to getting a police report is that most insurance companies want it to verify the loss before paying a claim.

First of all, very few agencies have the time to "look" for stolen items. I work at an agency that is very proactive and very investigation oriented; we have one of the lowest crime rates and highest clearance rates in the county. But there are just too many thefts every day to "look" for everything. The problem is compounded by the vast majority of victims; they leave guns, wallets, credit/debit cards, high-dollar cellphones, cameras, laptops, backpacks (for those of you living in Never Never Land, backpacks scream -- loudly -- "LAPTOP" at vehicle burglars) and other valuables -- often in plain sight -- in unattended vehicles. Often the vehicles are left unlocked. And they seldom have the serial numbers recorded. But when those items are stolen, they expect the police to drop everything and "look" for those items immediately. Those items that they are unable to link to the owner, for lack of a serial number or an owner-applied identifier. On a daily basis I urge people not to leave firearms in their vehicles, and I urge them to put a safe -- attached securely to the vehicle -- in the vehicle for those times that they have to leave the weapon behind while at a location where carrying is prohibited. Wanna guess how many do that? Very, very few...... essentially nobody. On a daily basis I urge people to record the serial numbers on the firearms, kayaks, cameras, laptops, and other valuables that they routinely travel in the vehicle with. Wanna guess how many bother?

I have had many, many cases in which people reported firearms stolen from their vehicles "some time in the past few months" and they just noticed they were missing. Naturally, only a very tiny fraction of them can provide a serial number. But they think that I am going to drop everything and "look" for their gun -- the one that I can't link to them -- and find it before the weekend. Hell, it's only Thursday...... plenty of time.

I have also recovered firearms and traced them through several buyers to locate the owner, who never reported it stolen, because he knew that it would never be recovered. Had he reported it, I might have been able to put a turd in jail.

So, those of you who preach that the cops don't give a damn and are too stupid and too lazy to do their jobs, just be aware that a whole lot of cops are saying exactly the same thing about you. Because if you aren't bright enough and responsible enough to secure your weapon (not in your vehicle) and lock your vehicle, and you allow the turds access to your stuff, you don't need to have it anyway.

Folks, the turds all know this. They know that people leave their vehicles unlocked. They know that people leave valuables in them. They know that people don't bother to record the serial numbers on their valuables. They know that the odds are that they can burglarize X number of vehicles before they get caught. They know that property crimes receive light sentences and early releases. They know that many people won't bother to report the burglaries. And all too often in today's world, they believe that they are "entitled" to your stuff if you don't take all the necessary steps to secure it.

You can thank the media for running specials on TV about our pawnshop databases; that's why so many turds now unload their loot at flea markets. They get more money and there is no paper trail for those rare instances where the victim had a serial number (and just so you know, outside those areas where participation is mandated by statute, pawn shop participation in those data programs is voluntary). But hey, they have a civic duty to let the public -- and the turds -- know how things work, right?

It's the world we live in, folks. Law enforcement can't -- and shouldn't -- take over your basic responsibilities. Like it or not, more and more people have lost all respect for rules, authority, their fellow man, and common decency. Political correctness dictates that we view the world from their eyes, not the eyes of the dwindling few who still espouse the old values.

And for the record: Yes, there are lazy cops. There are cops who don't give a damn about anything but their paycheck. But they are not representative of the entire LE system, any more than Colin Kaepernick represents all professional athletes. In some agencies the only cases assigned to detectives are those with identified suspects, and the detectives are hard pressed to find the time to work those cases to a prosecutable conclusion. I have had identity theft cases I worked that needed to be prosecuted in Houston (I work in an adjacent county), and I actually had to go down there file them myself because the HPD fraud division didn't have enough manpower to take my casefile and file it themselves.

I understand your frustration with the system. We in LE feel it even more than you, because we see how the system works from the inside, and it ain't pretty. But as long as we have large numbers of irresponsible people who encourage the burglars to ply their trade with little fear of capture or incarceration, we will continue to see burglary -- particularly vehicle burglary -- as a prevalent crime. In my county, which is better than many, the DA will accept lesser charges that can be used to enhance subsequent burglary and theft cases. We had a case last year in which we had information that a subject (who lives outside our jurisdiction) was responsible for a number of burglaries -- residential, business, and vehicle -- and we were watching him closely. One of our night shift units spotted him rolling through our AO, and turned around on him. He rabbited. He wrecked out and got away on foot (the officer recognized him, we walked a warrant through, and got him the next night), and his car was full of loot from residential burglaries which had occurred in OCCUPIED residences in Harris County within the hour. The Harris County DA would not accept Burglary of a Habitation charges on him because "we don't have a witness to the burglary". The homeowner we contacted, who had gone to bed before the burglary, was pretty upset. She had no idea she had been burglarized until we called her on her iPhone (which she had plugged in to a charger in her kitchen when she went to bed). There was no prosecution for that burglary (a second degree felony), but it wasn't because the police failed to do their job, or didn't give a damn, or were lazy.

@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!!