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Why won't government help us recover stolen goods?

theft of goods, esp. electronics, is rampant in the US. Fencing them is a major source of funds for druggies. Why won't the government do something like this [see below] to help us recover our property?

idea: register the serial number of electronics and other goods with serial numbers to the original buyer on a centrally operated website. Like automobiles, require a seller to deliver title via the website to a buyer in order to defeat the presumption that the item is stolen. After this step, whenever an item is presented at a pawnshop, the shop owner calls up the website and verifies that the person presenting is the actual owner. When police raid a thief and recover goods, they could check them on the website for ownership and this both make the case against the thief [possession of stolen property] and return the goods to the owner.

Since this would reduce losses to the insurance industry, they should carry part of the cost. The makers of electronic goods could carry the rest [it's dog dirt simple -- registering for warranty automatically makes the entry for anti-theft.]

When a store discovers that items have been stolen [either out the front door or the back], they could flag the serial number [assuming they keep records of them when received] as stolen and thus prevent anyone else from registering -- and lead police to the stolen goods via the address of the person trying to register them.

Key question -- why won't the government help by doing this?

4 Answers

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  • WRG
    Lv 7
    5 years ago

    Because the government isn't your mommy. Let me show you a couple of holes in your theory.

    1. Warranty Registration cards are nothing more than a marketing program. They aren't required and more often than not never returned.

    2. If you report an item stolen the police do enter it into a database.

    3. People that buy stolen items certainly aren't going to send in a registration.

    4. Who's going to pay for all of this?

  • 5 years ago

    So you want the government to do you job of recording your own serial #'s and take control of registering your products because you think that it would somehow reduce crime?

    Cars are registered to you and the government has multiple ways to track them (Vin, and license plate) and yet they're constantly stolen. So we already know your plan won't work.

  • Athena
    Lv 7
    5 years ago

    Um, WHICH "government" are you NOW looking toward to solve your personal problems?

    Local?

    County?

    State?

    Federal?

    World?

  • 5 years ago

    THAT'S what we need...more bureaucracy, red tape and databases.

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