Tips for Recovering Lost or Stolen Items

Katie McEntire

Staff Writer, Safety & Security

It's easy to panic if yous've lost something (or worse, it'south stolen from y'all). The expert news is it's possible to recover stolen items. You just demand to know how to start searching.

Learn what to exercise when you lot lose your valuables, how to recover them, and how to prevent loss in the first identify.

Preventing belongings crime and loss

Follow these pointers to foreclose your valuables from getting lost or stolen:

  • Go along records. Continue important information on hand similar serial numbers and vehicle identification numbers. These records brand the search for stolen goods easier.
  • Use digital trackers. Whether it's an app or a tracking device, placing digital beacons on your valuables tin assist you recover them if they are lost or stolen.
  • Lock it. While locks aren't always foolproof, they at to the lowest degree discourage theft, especially in public places.
  • Hide information technology.Snoops can't steal what they tin can't run into. When possible, hide your valuables and then others can't swipe them.

How to discover your lost or stolen items

  • Missing cards and documents

woman looking through purse

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Missing telephone

When your phone goes missing, you lot might experience lost too.

Co-ordinate to the PreyProject's 2018 report, 69.12% of those surveyed misplaced their phone while the remaining 30.88% had their phones stolen over the course of the twelvemonth.1 The same report lists the home, on the street, at work, or on public transit as common places where the over 800 people surveyed lost their phones.

What to do next

Your smartphone may be lost, only it'due south non forgotten. Follow these tips to effort and rail it down:

  • Use a locator app. Android and iPhones both have built-in apps to help you locate your phone.
  • Ship a text. If you left your phone in a public place, ship a text message to your phone with the render information. If your texts are fix to appear on your home screen, information technology makes information technology easy for the restaurant, store, or Good Samaritan to return it.
  • Take precautions. If your phone's still missing, have some preventative measures. First past backing up your telephone, then wiping information technology remotely to prevent thieves from stealing more. You should also change your passwords to apps and accounts you utilise oftentimes.
  • Inform your carrier. Side by side, contact your service provider. They can disable your service, help trace your phone, or get you a replacement phone.
  • Contact your constabulary section. Constabulary reports tin assistance you fight any fraudulent charges that come up after your phone goes missing. If your telephone is insured, you might need a police report to procedure your claim.

Missing laptop or tablet

Whether it's in a coffee shop, on public transit, or in your ain home, losing your laptop can be a nightmare. These are a few ways to increase your hazard of recovering your laptop.

What to do adjacent

Don't surrender your lost laptop—try these tips to locate information technology and go along it safe until it turns up:

  • Consider your surroundings. If your laptop gets swiped in a public space, at that place may be surveillance footage of the act. Ask anyone sitting nearby if they saw something and talk to employees about whatever footage they might accept.
  • Try a locator app. The Find My Device (Android) and Find My (Apple tree) apps work with laptops and tablets likewise. Try locating your device with 1 of these.
  • File a law report. Telephone call law enforcement. Similar with any valuable device, a police force report can help you out downwards the route.
  • Wipe your information. Some software allows you lot to wipe all your data remotely. If this isn't an option, you can all the same utilise services like iTunes and Google to log out of your accounts and deauthorize all devices.
  • Contact your insurance. If someone steals your device from your home or auto, your insurance might cover it. Call your agent to find out.
  • Showtime looking. Start with local pawn shops and online listings on sites like Craigslist, Facebook Marketplace, offerUp, and eBay. If you find your device, don't buy it or let the seller know it'due south yours. Instead, ask if they can concord the item for yous, and contact the constabulary department so the authorities can recover your stolen items.

Missing package

Package theft isn't just frustrating—it feels like a violation of privacy. Fortunately, there are ways to fight back.

Subscribe to our Youtube channel for more videos similar this i! Learn how to protect your dwelling house, your loved ones, yourself and your belongings.

What to do next

At that place are enough of tactics you can utilize to prevent theft and recover stolen packages. Hither are a few you tin endeavor to recover your stolen package.

  • Bank check again. Check every entrance of your home and spots the commitment driver could accept left it, like the back porch, the hedges, the garage, or between the screen door and front door.
  • Contact the delivery company. Have your tracking number and order details at the ready. Then, ask well-nigh the company policy on stolen packages. If the theft was due to their fault, they might be able to help y'all.
  • Contact the retailer. Go in touch on with client service and have your social club and tracking number ready. The customer service rep can tell you the store or company policy on stolen items.
  • File a written report. Study your missing package to the police and the Postal Inspection Service. The more agencies helping you track down your stolen package, the ameliorate.

Missing vehicle

Sometimes a lost car has been stolen, but more often, you've simply forgotten where you lot parked. Before reporting your vehicle every bit stolen, have these steps to locate your missing vehicle.

What to exercise side by side

Just considering you tin't detect your car doesn't mean information technology's gone for good. Bank check out these tips to locate your ride.

  • Start with the obvious.walk the area where you last parked your car. If you take a remote, click the emergency push button to locate your car.
  • Contact the parking lot company. If you've scoured the area and yet can't find your auto, don't assume it'south stolen just however. The parking lot company or expanse tow company may have taken it. Phone call the owner of the parking lot or the tow visitor they use and ask about your car.

    If your motorcar was stolen out of a garage, there may be parking attendants who saw what happened or know where to find footage.

  • Call the police. If your car wasn't towed, information technology might take been stolen. Information technology helps to know your vehicle identification number (VIN), license plate number, and where y'all saw it last.
  • Inform your insurance company. All those monthly premiums are finally going to pay off. If you have the proper coverage, your insurance company should compensate you for the loss of your vehicle.
  • Search for it online. Online resources similar Stolen 911 and Stolen-Property store cyberspace databases of theft reports. Both sites scour the cyberspace for listings featuring items just like yours.

You might as well find leads by searching for auto parts or at your local junk thousand. Many stolen vehicles get dissected and sold for parts. Automated systems can aid you identify parts from your stolen car—merely don't contact the seller directly. Report your findings to the law and let them take it from at that place.

Missing keys

Keys can show upwards in the weirdest places. If you've lost your house or car keys, use these tricks to recover them.

What to do next

You aren't getting far without your keys. Accept a breath and try these tips to find them.

  • Expect in strange places. Keys seem to end upwardly in locations that defy logic. Later you've exhausted the usual suspects like your purse or pockets, first checking out the weird places like couch cushions and laundry piles.
  • Call for backup. If y'all've given spare keys to loved ones, now's the time to become help. If your missing key is for your car, the dealer might be able to aid with a replacement.
  • Modify the locks. Sadly, if your keys are lost or stolen, you'll demand to change your locks. The process tin consume upward some time and coin, but it keeps your home and loved ones safe.

Use the tips here to keep amend track of your keys, but if yous do end up locked out of your automobile or home, use our step-by-pace guide to get dorsum inside.

Nobody wants to lose their valuables or fall victim to theft, but if it happens to yous, you aren't powerless. Recall to take precautions by watching your items, keeping your digital data safe, and having a program in mind before the theft happens.

Missing cards and documents

Missing anything from your wallet (or your entire wallet) tin can be nerve-wracking. Thankfully, there are ways to replace or renew important items similar driver's licenses, credit cards, and fifty-fifty social security cards.

Driver'south license or regime issued ID

Like whatsoever important missing item, don't panic. Losing your driver's license or ID can be scary, but it could only exist misplaced or left backside somewhere.

  • Where did you employ information technology concluding.It's a mutual story any bartender could tell you. A dark out leads to someone leaving the bar without their driver's license or credit bill of fare.
    Retrace your steps and think of the terminal time your driver's license left your wallet. And then think of the last time your wallet left your bag or pocket.
  • If you suspect theft, report it. Some states require a police report if your license goes missing. So if your search turns up fruitless, be sure to study it before moving forward.
  • Check your local DMV for details.The rules vary from state to state on how to handle lost or stolen IDs. Check your land'southward DMV website or call your local role to get details. You'll probable take to go through a few steps to renew your license.

Credit carte du jour

Missing credit cards tin be the affair of adulthood nightmares. But like the missing driver's license, it'southward important non to panic. Consider what you used your card for last and phone call the store or shop to encounter if they still accept information technology.

  • Check your statement.Almost banks and credit cards allow yous to check your charges online. Log into your bank business relationship to see where yous (or someone else) used it concluding. If the charges look unfamiliar, abolish your card immediately.
  • Contact your banking concern.Credit and debit cards go missing all the time. Thankfully, banks are prepared. Just contact your bank and ask them to supplant the carte du jour and you'll have a new one with a new number on the way.

Social Security card

You may not use your Social Security card often, but when you lot need it, it's usually for something important. If you've lost your Social Security bill of fare, y'all tin can asking a replacement through the Social Security office online.

Unfortunately, some states don't allow a replacement menu request online. In these states, you'll need to apply through the mail:

  • Minnesota
  • New Hampshire
  • Nevada
  • Oklahoma
  • West Virginia

When searching for information about Social Security or other government IDs, be sure to use trusted sources such as authorities websites. Don't be fooled by scammers posing as government agents who could swipe your Social Security Number.

Last discussion

Accidents happen and we're all prone to losing valuables from fourth dimension to time. From packages and car keys to important documents, a lilliputian extra mindfulness can go a long way when it comes to tracking your things (and preventing theft).

FAQ

It depends on the circumstances effectually your lost item. If the police find your missing car, laptop, or other valuables, they may go on it as testify against the thief, or you could go it back. It depends on how yous reported information technology stolen and who found it.

Burglars and thieves ordinarily steal valuables to turn a profit. Pawn shops are the about common places to recover stolen items. Just online listing sites like Craigslist and Facebook Market are increasingly popular places to sell stolen appurtenances.

Many thieves are smart enough to know not to sell in the area they stole items from. Use a resource similar Stolen 911 to check national listings for your stolen items.

Yes, merely just if you know that the goods are stolen. Possession of stolen goods is considered a misdemeanor or felony depending on the items and circumstances involved.2

Once more, it depends on the circumstances around the theft. If your stolen particular was used to commit another crime, it might be held as evidence. For things like bikes, laptops, or smartphones, file a police report, and law enforcement will notify you if they find the particular.

Unfortunately, recovering your stolen items is up to you. While filing a police report tin aid, it won't guarantee the rubber return of your valuables. Thankfully, sources like Stolen-Property connect you to online listings to help make your search easier.

Start past taking pictures of any damage to your car and the contents inside. Share a list of missing items with the constabulary for the police report.

Next, contact your insurance provider. Depending on your policy, they might be able to help with whatever damage. Simply unfortunately, there aren't many policies that cover the contents of your car.

Sadly, simply about a quarter of stolen items are recovered.three That said, you should still file a law written report. These reports can aid get your holding replaced, and they besides ensure that the law can contact you if they find your items.

Related articles on SafeWise

Sources

  1. PreyProject, "Mobile Theft and Loss Study," Accessed January 11, 2022.
  2. Ki Akhbari, LegalMatch.com, "Receiving Stolen Belongings," April 2018. Accessed Jan 11, 2022.
  3. FBI: 2018 Criminal offence in the Usa, "Property Stolen and Recovered," Accessed January 11, 2022.

Katie McEntire

Written by

Katie McEntire

As a renter, pet-owner, and woman living alone, Katie McEntire takes condom seriously. She'southward tested devices like pet cameras, home security systems, and GPS trackers in her ain dwelling and devices in the proper name of safety. In addition to testing, writing, and reviewing for SafeWise, she also makes videos for the site's YouTube aqueduct. She'southward been featured on publications like TechGuySmartBuy, Forbes, Healthy Moms, and Digital Intendance. Katie has a Bachelor'south caste in Technical Writing from Austin Peay State University in Clarksville, Tennessee. She's held previous writing positions at Overstock.com and Pinnacle Ten Reviews.

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