Thieves put false numbers on stolen property

Press, 14 March 1985, Page 3

Thieves put false numbers on stolen property

Criminals in Christchurch are "laundering” stolen property in attempts to make it hard for the police to trace the original owners. Methods include putting false serial numbers on stolen video recorders and removing identification marks which can be seen only under ultra-violet light, according to the head of the police break squad, Detective Sergeant Bob Hardie.

“The word was going round the criminal element that any stolen property could be made legal within 30 minutes of being stolen,” he said.

Detective Sergeant Hardie urged property owners to clearly mark their goods, particularly electronic items.

Effective methods were to engrave marks on the inside of electronic items,

or to make a series of marks on the goods with an ultra-violet pen.

Lack of identification sometimes resulted in goods having to be returned to known thieves, said Detective Sergeant Hardie. The police are now trying to combat efforts by criminals to give stolen property a new “identity." Detectives have recently noticed a number of attempts by criminals to launder stolen property. Stick-on serial numbers taken in a burglary at a Christchurch engineering company have turned up on the back of recovered stolen electronics equipment. Thieves are also making their own serial numbers and putting them on stolen goods, according to Detective Sergeant Hardie.

The aim is to make the police believe that stolen

property is legitimate, and also to increase the value of the stolen goods. Buyers are told that the police will not be able to trace the original owners.

Items which are popular targets for thieves include video recorders, colour televisions, micro-wave ovens, stereo record players, and jewellery.

About 50 house burglaries are reported to the Christchurch police a week. Video recorders continue to be stolen at the rate of one a day. Detective Sergeant Hardie said that although some offenders remove ultraviolet markings from property, this was still a good method of marking goods. The police were able to trace many owners of recovered stolen property by this method. Identification marks put inside the equip-

ment were effective.

Jewellery was obviously more difficult to mark, he said.

People with jewellery were advised to store it in a safe deposit box and to keep photographs and good descriptions of the items.

This helped police inquiries into jewellery thefts, said Detective Sergeant Hardie.

He repeated a police warning that people should beware of goods being offered for sale at “cheap rates.”

Buyers of such goods could be liable to criminal charges and, also, those who sold the items often stole them back.

A pensioner was recently convicted in the District Court of receiving a stolen television set and video recorder, said Detective Sergeant Hardie.