Residents of Las Cruces and Dona Ana County – or anywhere – are encouraged to register valuables online by using the property inventory system called ReportIt that helps police departments across the country track lost and stolen goods, and return them to their rightful owners.
The Las Cruces Police Department began using LeadsOnline, the company that offers the ReportIt tracking system, in March 2015 and has identified several rightful owners of lost and stolen property. Much of that property has already been returned to their owners.
LeadsOnline allows police to track valuable property through serial numbers, and other means, and return that property in the event it’s found or recovered as part of a investigation. LeadsOnline compares serial numbers of personal property stolen with a national database of items that have been recovered or sold at secondhand dealers, pawn shops or recycle centers.
ReportIt lets residents securely store serial numbers, item descriptions, pictures and scans of receipts so property can be easily identified in the event of theft or loss. Up to 100 items of value can be stored on the ReportIt site for free and an inventory of those items can be retrieved from any device with Internet capabilities.
To register valuable personal property, visit the ReportIt site at www.LeadsOnline.com.
Las Cruces city ordinance requires secondhand dealers, pawn shops and recycling centers to report intake of new and used property to LeadsOnline. Once those items have been reported, they are compared to property and serial numbers that are stored in NCIC, the National Crime Information Center. If an item matches the serial number or description of property that’s been reported stolen, Las Cruces Police will be notified immediately.
Without the use of LeadsOnline, it would take detectives weeks or possibly months to link a stolen item with its rightful owner. Without such a tracking system, it’s sometimes impossible to link recovered items with their rightful owners.
Information from Las Cruces Police