Chesterfield Police encourage residents to ‘Report It’ for valuables this holiday season

CHESTERFIELD COUNTY, Va. (WWBT) - With Christmas just five days away, you may be planning for last-minute gifts, but criminals are preparing as well.

It is why Chesterfield Police want residents to know about a program that can help with recovering valuable items that get swiped around the holidays.

“Report It” is a secure database that allows users to enter in valuable items to track them if a theft happens.

“Let’s say in the unfortunate event that property is stolen and the suspect attempts to pawn that property, we’re notified immediately by pawn shops and stores that this is going on, and gives us an opportunity to arrest those individuals and return the property to the owner,” said Chesterfield Police Lt. Russ Granderson.

The items entered are usually electronics, jewelry, artwork and even firearms.

“If we recover those items, we have serial numbers we can compare to what’s in the ‘Report It,’” Granderson said.

While not all items will have serial numbers, there is a comment section where you can put specific details about the item and upload a picture of it.

Granderson said while the department has used this program for a few years, only roughly 100 residents and businesses have signed up.

“It only takes about five minutes to do,” he added.

Meanwhile, police also encourage families to break down any boxes for those gifts before putting them in the trash.

“If you’re telling them, ‘hey, I’ve got these things inside my house,’ that will give them a reason to take a risk to try and get inside,” Granderson said.

From 12/01/21-12/19/21, there have been 33 burglaries in Chesterfield. That’s the same number from those dates in 2020.

However, larcenies from vehicles have dropped this year. From 12/01/21-12/19/21, there have been 54 reports compared to the 87 last year.

Overall, police hope more residents will consider this program.

“Citizens, they’ll say, ‘hey, I never thought it would happen in my neighborhood,’” Granderson said. “The fact of the matter is it could happen anywhere.”

Chesterfield police also urge drivers to keep any valuables out of sight in vehicles to prevent those thefts.

For more information on Report It, click here.

Copyright 2021 WWBT. All rights reserved.

Send it to 12 here.

Want NBC12’s top stories in your inbox each morning? Subscribe here.