The Bartholomew County Sheriff’s Department wants to encourage you to take an inventory of your valuable items, to record any serial numbers and to store that inventory in a safe place.

While that inventory won’t help you keep from being robbed or keep your belongings from getting destroyed in a disaster, it will make it easier to recover your belongings, to help document the crime, if police find a stash of stolen items and to file insurance claims.

Detective Sgt. Chad Swank explains the importance of recording the serial numbers of items that have them.

“Any item that you may have, whether it is a TV or a laptop computer, there are hundreds of thousands of those made,” Swank said. “So, we have got to be able to distinguish theirs from all the others out there. So, having that serial number is the really the only way we can do that. Having that serial number allows us enter the item into the nationwide computer database. So if any officer anywhere in the nation comes across that item, if they run that serial number, they are going to know that it is stolen. And in turn we are going to know that we have a lead for the investigation, as well.”

Swank said that is important that once you make your list, to keep it somewhere safe.

“I know we have had victims in the past who have serial numbers for their guns, but they keep them in their safe with all the guns,” Swank said. “But then someone broke in and took the entire safe. So, they have no serial numbers to let us know about.”