By COLlive reporter
The 71 Precinct Crime Prevention program of the NYPD will be holding a free registration for cell phones and bicycles on Thursday, April 11, from 2 to 5 PM in Crown Heights.
It will be held at the Crown Heights Jewish Community Council at 387 Kingston Avenue and the process takes less then 10-minutes.
According to the NYPD, registering your belongings will help them return any lost or stolen merchandise to the rightful owner.
“When the bad guy steals a phone or bike, he now has to unload it to make some money,” explains Officer Frank Bulzoni. “A lot of times, what the bad guy will do, is go to a Pawn Shop or a second hand dealer shop to sell the merchandise.”
He told COLlive.com that because of the nature of that type of business, such shops are required to log each purchase they make and report to the NYPD, including the serial number and type of cell phone.
“We can then take these receipts and cross reference them with phones that have been registered with the NYPD,” Bulzoni said. “If we come across a stolen phone, we are able to go directly to the shop and retrieve the phone.”
Another scenario where registration helps is when a suspect is arrested one one charge and happens to posses three phone.
“This person will never admit that all three phones are not his,” said the police officer. “However, we can now take these phones and run them in our database against registered phones.”
For more info, contact the 71 Precinct Crime Prevention at 718-735-0528
cool! 71 Precinct Police Officer Frank Bulzoni explains why registering cell phone and bicycles helps retrieving them once stolen. For more info, contact the 71 Precinct Crime Prevention at 718-735-0528
so cool!