Police hope pen will help you trick thieves
6:21 p.m. Wednesday, March 12, 2008
As the weather gets warmer, police expect criminals to become more active. But, officers are scripting a new initiative to stay ahead of the crooks.
Many thieves will break into homes, steal your stuff and take it to pawn shops to cash in. Police are hoping to throw thieves off, by passing out special pens. When you use the pen to write on something, at first you can’t see it. But when you use a special light, you can.
Police want you to use the pens to write your name or drivers license number on expensive items in your home, things like stereos and TVs. So if a crook steals your stuff, police will be able to get it back to you if they find it.
“We recover a lot of stolen merchandise,” said Capt. Ron Brown, Topeka Police. “But a lot of times folks don’t write down the serial numbers, they don’t mark it in anyway for it to be identified, so that property does not get back to that individual.”
Police said it’s an easy way to help curb home break-ins and protect your property at the same time.
The number of break-ins last year picked up during the summer months, especially in August.
The Crime Tracker charts home break-ins in Topeka from Jan. 2007 to Dec. 2007. Information from the Topeka Police Department.
The almost-magical pens are intended to trick thieves, since the writing isn’t easily detectable. Pawn shops will have the special light and will look over items good before taking them in.
“We definitely don’t want to take stolen merchandise,” said Robbie Garcia, Capital City Pawn manager.
Police said they’ll be depending on your involvement to make the Record It – Report It - Recover It initiative a success. The more Topekans who use the pens, the safer our city will be.
Police plan to pass out the new pens in April or May. There may be a small fee.
Our 49 News Crime Tracker shows there were more than 1,200 home break-ins in all of last year. So far this year, they’re down 11 percent.
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