Police database - stolen laptops

Imagine this: On a dreary Monday morning you board the train into work with your laptop for the start of yet another long work week. As the train pulls into your station you sleepily stand up and dash out the door for the platform along with dozens of other commuters. But wait! You’re missing something. You forgot your laptop on the train! You rush back inside the train before the doors close and look frantically under your seat. But your briefcase with your laptop is nowhere to be found!

This situation is more prevalent than you may think. In 2003 there were more than 600,000 laptops stolen (Safeware Insurance, 2003 report). That’s more than 1,640 laptops stolen every single day.And to compound the problem, even if the police were to find the thief and recover your laptop, they have almost no idea who owns it or how to get it back to you! Why? Because you never wrote down the serial numbers and the paperwork accompanying it is long gone. You filed a police report, but with no serial number to report, your laptop could be stored away in some police evidence room with thousands of others just like it across the state or across the country, never to be returned to you again.

That’s where JustStolen.net comes in. Our website was established by Police Officers to assist consumers, college students and business owners retrieve lost or stolen valuables. The website is a powerful database that members can use to register their personal property. Any descriptive information can be entered into the database including make, model, color, serial number and any thing else you can think of. You can even upload photographs of your items.

But along with the other great advantages of being a member, there are two fantastic features about JustStolen.net:
• Once your items are registered, if they are ever stolen or lost you have all the information you need to give to police. Your descriptive information about the item has been stored in our secure database.
• But here is the best part: When your item is recovered by police across the state or across the globe, they only have to log onto one simple-to-use website to search for its owner. They just enter the serial number or description of your laptop, iPod, DVD player or other valuable, and the item’s description and the email address that you entered when you first registered is there for them to contact you!

Your valuable item won’t be sitting in some far away evidence room, because the police now know who the owner is, and they have an easy way to get in touch with you. It’s as simple as that! Your property is returned and there’s no need to spend hundreds or thousands of dollars to replace it.

And best of all, JustStolen.net is FREE to use; free for consumers, college students and business owners, and free for all law enforcement personnel. There is never any charge to use our service.

What are some of the other benefits of how JustStolen.net gets your valuables back to you?
• There’s no need to spend your hard earned money to replace lost or stolen valuables
• There’s no need to fill out time-consuming insurance claim forms
• No insurance claim means lower premiums
• Your irreplaceable items (data in your laptop, photographs in your digital camera) have a better chance of being returned to you
• You, the victim of a crime, can now assist the police in a successful prosecution of the thief
• Police won’t waste precious time trying to find the owner of recovered merchandise, freeing up time for crime fighting
• Your member information can be accessed by you from any internet-accessible computer across the globe
• Police only have to search one powerful database for owner information when they recover lost or stolen goods
• No contracts to sign
• No minimum commitment
Sign up today!

 

So, like, do I fill in my adress so everybody knows what kind of fancy stuff I have in my appartment?

 

that's kind of what it sounds like...

"its a good thing i listed all my stuff on that website last week, since i got ransacked today! maybe i can get my stuff back now!"

 

How can you not trust a site that has been endorsed by Brandon B., David S., and Richard M. of the City of xxx Police Dept.?

 

LOL, fred!!

 

Ahh the site was covered in Irish Emigrant! That settles it!

 

PCWORLD story

http://blogs.pcworld.com/tipsandtweaks/archives/003279.html

 

Journalists can be fooled, too. For a case study, refer to the reporting of Judith Miller in connection with the war in Iraq, an issue much more high-profile than this database. Thomas Shea, the man behind juststolen.net, may have the best intentions but I find it hard to trust a site that relies on testimonials by the likes of David S. and Tom M. Is there any proof that police departments "across the globe" actually check this site to find the owner of a stolen and recovered item? Who will guarantee that any data submitted to this site is in safe hands?

 

I find it funny how people are thinking this is a organized effort by the mafia in order to coax people into revealing what kind of extremely valuable stuff they have

If you dont feel like signing up dont sign up. I can think of a dozen more ways for thieves to know what extremely valuable stuff you have. And yes they all involve not setting up a website.

Personally I think if a laptop is stolen or lost it is gone. Best bet (especially if you are in college) is to buy insurance. $30 for 2k coverage for a year isnt bad. However I still think its rude to be flaming this.

 

lixuelai, I must assume you were not referring to my posts. Neither did I state that juststolen.net is a mafia site, nor did I flame the original poster. If you advertise a service in this forum you should be prepared for justified criticism and that's not the same as flaming someone. For me this whole enterprise is an exercise in futility in the absence of proof that police departments actually use the site to track stolen property. Were is the evidence to support such a claim? Why did " Richard M., City of xxx Police Dept." provide neither his full name nor the name of the department he works for, if he does in fact exist? Sheriff601, any comments?

 

I think we can pretty much write this up as spam. The OP has only posted 4 times (one post deleted by another mod) and they all promoted this "service." Once a place like that has your serial number and all other info, it makes it a lot easier to "transfer" the ownership of that device...then suddenly you'll be screwed too.

Truth be told: I wouldn't trust this site unless someone legit and pretty high up in the tech chain started saying this would be useful. It's a great idea, but this needs more legit sources backing it up.

 

told me to post the report & laptop (Vaio) information in their police database, Boston homepage:

http://www.cityofboston.gov/police/

Database

http://www.juststolen.net/

This is awesome