Police say record serial numbers so ‘we don’t have to give stolen goods back to thieves’

Burglaries can happen to anyone, so people need to take steps to prevent them. Photo / 123RF

Police are urging people to add another small task to the pre-Christmas getaway checklist - recording the serial numbers of their electronic goods.

Making sure that if your things get stolen, police officers can get them back for you was the message from Dannevirke police to a group of mostly senior residents this week.

Sergeant Gary McKernon was speaking on the subject at a luncheon held for those who took a series of workshops earlier in the year at Tararua Reap.

Sergeant Gary McKernon, of Dannevirke police, had advice for residents on keeping their valuables safe or being able to get them back if they get stolen. Photo / Leanne Warr

“It occurred to me that I’m not in amongst inexperienced people,” he said.

“If I have to stand here and tell you to lock your doors and windows when you go away, then we’ve been failing for a very long time.”

McKernon said for those planning on going away over the Christmas and New Year period, it was a matter of running through checklists, such as having a good relationship with the neighbours and making sure mailboxes were cleared, as well as keeping valuables out of sight.

He emphasised the importance of getting serial numbers of anything electrical that was expensive, or taking photographs of jewellery and anything of value.

Those photographs and serial numbers could be handed on to a family member or someone they trusted to store the information, or could be saved or any cloud-based service online, he said.

“It’s so frustrating when we do raids on places and we get electronic equipment and we know it’s stolen. We don’t have the serial numbers to say they’re stolen. And we have to give them back. It hurts. It really hurts.

“Take the serial numbers down [and] store them somewhere safe.”

McKernon said while there wasn’t a big problem with burglaries in Dannevirke, he had worked in South Auckland where there tended to be between 30 and 40 a night.

Scams were a much bigger issue here, with more scams than burglaries reported in the area.

“I’m sorry to say your age group is the main target. Because technology might not come so easily for some of you,” he said.

For most people, when they were growing up, they would be familiar with streets they had to stay away from and were able to keep themselves safe through local knowledge.

But the internet brought that problem into people’s homes, McKernon said.

“And you can’t see it coming. Your local knowledge doesn’t mean a thing.”

Kiwis reported $6.5 million lost in scams in the last quarter of 2021. Photo / NZME

He said in the last quarter of last year, Kiwis reported $6.5 million lost on scams, but the true number couldn’t be known because some victims might be too embarrassed to report it.

Such scams as cold calling, where the caller claimed to be from the IRD, telling the victim they owed $1000 and that there were bailiffs ready to come and take their car.

“They rush you,” McKernon said.

Then the next day, the people would call again and say there had been a mistake and the amount was actually $5000.

“They just keep coming at you until they bleed you dry.”

Another scam was tech support where they might claim to be from a bank or other company saying that someone has tried to get into an account and the victim’s laptop had been compromised. So the victim would be asked for the serial number of the laptop.

“They’ll tell you how to find it. They’re very helpful.”

Once a prompt came up on the screen, the victim would be told to click “yes”, which would give them access so they could “make sure your computer’s safe for you”.

“If you do get caught out by that, what do you do?” McKernon said.

“The very second you think, I pressed yes and I should have pressed no or not pressed anything at all, get your computer unplugged from the power supply.”

He said then unplug the Wi-Fi and cut them off and advised taking the computer to an expert to ensure it hadn’t been compromised.

Another scam was phishing scams where an email addressed to a victim might say they’ve won the lottery but they had to pay a fee to claim the winnings.

“These scams are there because they work. This scam goes out to thousands. They reel you in. I suppose that’s why they call them phishing scams.”

Buying online was another issue, but where most shopping websites like Farmers and The Warehouse were genuine, others, for example, Facebook Marketplace, might be a bit more risky because buyers couldn’t do their due diligence and look at the seller’s history.

McKernon also suggested that those planning on going away should not post anything on social media, especially photos, until they returned, so as not to advertise they weren’t home.

He said if people were unsure if something was a scam, police would be happy to take a look and provide advice.

“It’s far easier for us to help out with that than take the report that your life savings are gone.”