SPOKANE-- Spokane detectives are turning to unusual resources to help solve property crimes and it's not just the suspects they're tracking down.
More and more people are turning to the internet to solve their own property crimes.
In a lot of cases, people are posting more information on sites like craigslist than they are in their police reports.
Detective Dan Blashill wants you to know how he tracks down stolen items on the internet. 'We track down both stolen property as well as suspect information because a lot of these people put their personal information out there.'
He's looking for suspects, but detective Blashill is also looking for victims.
More and more he's finding posts by people seeking information on their stolen property.
These internet postings include much more information than the victims listed in their police report. 'We find that a lot of people put better descriptions of their stolen property of when the incident happened and even more importantly, have photographs of their property.'
Blashill says 90% of victims don't submit pictures in their official report, but many do put them on the web. 'A picture is worth a thousand words. Somebody tells me they lost sapphire earrings, but a photo of these earrings with special designs on them carries a lot of weight when we are trying to research if we have those stolen items somewhere.'
Blashill believes a lot of people don't want to wait to file a police report. 'It's a quick phone call to crime check who is swamped, and very busy. Sometimes it's a 20 minute wait to file a report.'
Detectives advise everyone to write down or take a picture of serial numbers on your property.
If your item is stolen, don't post the whole number on Craigslist; try to keep it to the first five digits, so you aren't giving out too much personal information.
