Protecting Your Bike
If a bike is on your holiday shopping list, do you know the best way to recover it in case it’s lost or stolen? News 25’s Katarina Luketich shows us how to ensure your set of wheels isn’t one of the many left at the police department unclaimed.
Dozens of bikes fill a storage shed outside the Biloxi Police Department, most lost or stolen and it’s not uncommon to see officers rolling in these sets of wheels. Sergeant Jackie Rhodes said, “It seems like every day, sometimes more than others but it’s on a regular basis and majority of them are just found property.”
So, what if one of these bikes is yours? How do you recover it before it’s sent to auction? There’s not much police can do to return it to you unless you have a sure way to prove it’s yours, like a serial number. “We try to figure anyway we can to prove that it’s theirs. For example, we had one gentleman who lost his bicycle. He didn’t have a serial number but he had a description of the bike. It had a chain lock on it. He had the lock combination. That let us know that odds are this is his bicycle,” said Sgt. Rhodes.
Even though police will do their best to work with you, they cannot stress enough the importance of writing down serial numbers. It’s the best measure you can take to make sure your property is returned to you. “Anything we have a serial number on is so much easier to find and return,” said Sgt. Rhodes.
Police are encouraging residents to register with LeadsOnline, a free service that allows residents to store serial numbers, item descriptions and pictures so items may be more easily identified if stolen or lost.
Anyone wanting to participate in ReportIt can register for the free service at reportit.leadsonline.com to begin building a personal property inventory list.
Dozens of bikes fill a storage shed outside the Biloxi Police Department, most lost or stolen and it’s not uncommon to see officers rolling in these sets of wheels. Sergeant Jackie Rhodes said, “It seems like every day, sometimes more than others but it’s on a regular basis and majority of them are just found property.”
So, what if one of these bikes is yours? How do you recover it before it’s sent to auction? There’s not much police can do to return it to you unless you have a sure way to prove it’s yours, like a serial number. “We try to figure anyway we can to prove that it’s theirs. For example, we had one gentleman who lost his bicycle. He didn’t have a serial number but he had a description of the bike. It had a chain lock on it. He had the lock combination. That let us know that odds are this is his bicycle,” said Sgt. Rhodes.
Even though police will do their best to work with you, they cannot stress enough the importance of writing down serial numbers. It’s the best measure you can take to make sure your property is returned to you. “Anything we have a serial number on is so much easier to find and return,” said Sgt. Rhodes.
Police are encouraging residents to register with LeadsOnline, a free service that allows residents to store serial numbers, item descriptions and pictures so items may be more easily identified if stolen or lost.
Anyone wanting to participate in ReportIt can register for the free service at reportit.leadsonline.com to begin building a personal property inventory list.
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