Earlier in the month, the county saw a number of thefts of mobile phones from cafes, restaurants and bars where people were distracted by an offender who then took their phone.

Whilst these incidents have reduced, there are still a number of mobile phone thefts across Hertfordshire and police are reminding the public of three key things to keep in mind:

1. Register your phone for free on www.immobilise.com
   It could help your phone to be returned to you if it gets lost or stolen.
2. Keep your phone safe
   Don’t leave it in your car, in an open handbag or pocket and never leave it unattended  in a public place, even for a second.
3. If it gets stolen, block it immediately
   If you are unlucky enough to have your phone stolen, let your phone operator know  immediately and they can block the phone so that a thief can’t use it – and also report it  to police.

Unfortunately some people are tempted to report their mobile as stolen when they know they have lost it instead – false reporting is a crime. This is an offence and, where there is evidence, police will prosecute. Prior to reporting your mobile as stolen to police, you will be asked to make a declaration that you understand the consequences of making a false claim.

Posters with the numbers of mobile phone operators are now displayed in most station receptions and are available on the police website – search for ‘mobile phone security’.

If you report your phone as stolen to the police, officers need the serial number, known as the IMEI number, of your handset to be able to fully investigate the offence.

The IMEI is a unique 15 digit number assigned to the handset at the point of manufacture. It will be placed on a national database to which all UK police have access. If you don’t have IMEI number to hand, it will be on the box the phone came in or you can obtain it from your network operator. The best way is to register it for free on www.immobilise.com, that way you have an online record of number and police can return it to you if it gets lost or stolen.

You must also ask your operator for the handset and SIM card to be blocked so they don’t work any more.

For more information and to view the source article please visit www.herts.police.uk

Glastonbury Festival, one of Europe’s largest music and arts festivals, takes place between June 22 and June 26, 2011. With more than 175,000 people heading to Worthy Farm in rural Somerset, the policing operation to help people stay safe at the festival is the largest in Avon and Somerset Police’s calendar.

Crime at the festival remains low and last year around 99.7% of people were not victims of crime. Police are reminding those people attending the festival about the things they can do to have a fun and crime-free festival.

Inspector Chris Morgan, who will be working at the festival, said:

Glastonbury is less than a month away now and I know the excitement is building for everyone lucky enough to get a ticket. People have paid a lot of money to come and we do not want anyone to have their experience ruined by becoming a victim of crime.

There are some easy things people can do which will help them have a great festival. The safety tips are quick and inexpensive but can make a real difference. The key thing to remember is to bring with you only what you need and keep anything valuable in the free property lock-ups on the site.

Festival-goers are advised to:

• Plan your journey carefully. Check your vehicle is roadworthy, take plenty of food and water with you and be prepared for queues near the site.
• Bring only what you need. Anything you do need should be registered on for free on Immobilise (www.immobilise.com) before you set off and either kept with you or, even better, left in the free property lock-ups.
• If you need to bring a phone, find an old handset and bring that instead.
• Look out for your friends and ask them to look out for you. Try to travel around the site with your friends – particularly at night when it is dark and often disorientating

Festival-goers can stay up to date with news, photos and crime prevention advice online, on social media and through text messages both before and during the festival:

Follow them online at www.glastonburypolice.org
Follow us on Twitter @PoliceatGlasto for regular tweets
Sign up to receive text messages by texting Glasto to 81819

Sergeant Shirley Eden from the Operational Planning team will be taking part in a special webchat. People will be able to log on and ask about crime prevention and what it is like to plan for an enormous event such as the Glastonbury Festival. The webchat takes place between 6.30pm and 8pm on Wednesday June 8, 2011 at www.avonandsomerset.police.uk

For more information and to read the source article please go to: Avon & Somerset Police

The police seize hundreds of items each year and many of them cannot be returned, as police do not know where they have come from.

Immobilise.com is a free database whereby residents can register valuable items and record information such as serial numbers and distinguishing marks. All police forces have access to the site and when an item is seized or handed in, officers can check the database and find out who it belongs to.

Inspector Paul Kinrade from the South Manchester Division of Greater Manchester Police said:

Our property store is crammed full of bikes, garden tools, computers, jewellery and clothing but unfortunately a lot of this is never returned to its owners as we are not able to identify where it has come from.

Obviously we hope that residents never have to go through the experience of getting broken into but registering your valuables on immobilise only takes a couple of minutes and it could spell the difference between getting your stolen items back or never seeing them again.

To avoid the chances of being broken into, please remember to shut and lock all of your windows and doors. It sounds really obvious but unfortunately a third of burglaries happen because homes are left insecure.

You can also help to deter burglars by leaving lights on and keeping valuables out of view.

To read the source article please go to: www.gmp.police.uk

A cycle viewing and coding session was held at Cheltenham Police Station in Lansdown Road. The event was put on so people who have reported their bicycles stolen could see if they had been found by police.

It was also a chance for cyclists to find out more about protecting their bikes through the National Mobile Property Register (NMPR) which is accessed by the public via the www.immobilise.com website.

Police community support officer Kim Graham, who organised the event, said:

We now have more than 1,100 people who have registered through us with the NMPR thanks to the local cycle shops and police operations.

Officers were also security marking and encouraging cyclists to register their bikes on immobilise.

By visiting the website www.immobilise.com, a free, private and secure portfolio of personal property can be created and items added to the NMPR.

If the bike, or registered item, is then lost or stolen the website can be used to tell the police, insurers and the second-hand trade to help in finding it and catching the thief.

To read the source story please go to: http://www.thisisgloucestershire.co.uk/

One of the key crime prevention messages that the digi-bike is promoting is the registration of your valued property on the Immobilise National Property Register (www.immobilise.com).

To view the BBC video go to: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-10947119

To read the expanded BBC news story go to: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-black-country-10944247

Unlike Europe second hand dealers and pawnbrokers in the US have to supply details of transactions to their local law enforcement agencies so CheckMEND has widened its remit to include this in the process of running a due diligence check. At the same time Recipero, the owner of CheckMEND, has rewritten its US NMPR platform so free of charge US law enforcement will be able to view CheckMEND transaction data via the US NMPR as well as being able to match the data with crime reports provided to the NMPR (via the Trace Checker system) from over 18,000 US law enforcement agencies.

Ken Bouche who leads business development for CheckMEND and Trace Checker in the US said:

This is the culmination of over 2 years work to allow traders and pawn brokers to supply for free transaction data to an online database that can be checked also free of charge by the Police. Bolting on the stolen data from Trace Checker which Recipero took over late in 2009 is inspired and provides a whole new service for the trade to ensure they are not buying stolen or dubious goods that have been reported as stolen to their local law enforcement agency. If the service grows to be as popular in the US as it is in Europe this will be a very significant step for forward for everyone involved

For more information please contact us: www.recipero.com/contact

Lost my phone!

In 2000 I lost my phone on the London Underground and went to the lost property office to try to find it. However, I was then faced with the task of providing a serial number or what we also know as the IMEI number. But in 2000  no one had really heard of what an IMEI number was let alone know their own!

Anyway after eventually finding my IMEI number and recovering my phone, I realised that all modern consumer electronic products have a unique serial number and that without them there was little way of distinguishing one item from another. Thus, I formed the idea that there was a need in the market for a pre-loss or theft registration service containing these serial numbers.

Previous career path

My career has always involved providing services to the consumer, back in 2000, at the age of 40; I sold my chain of restaurants, bars and leisure facilities, with the aim of taking early retirement and relaxing after a very full working life… until the idea for CheckMEND hit me.

I decided to start up a company called Recipero (latin meaning to retain or recover), with a view to building a company that provided a range of products and services based on the accumulation, organisation and analysis of information relating to personal property ownership, associated criminality, fraud and illegal trading.

The simple pre-loss registration database:

The starting point was with a simple pre-loss registration database, but it quickly became apparent that there was value in the analysis of the data and potential to provide HPI-type data for consumer electronics.  This was reinforced at the time with the explosion of online auction sites and the willingness of people to buy and sell second-hand goods online. All at the same time as the huge increase in the theft of mobile phones and other mobile devices such as laptops, ipods and the like.
The next three years was spent populating the MEND data warehouse and building partnerships across the mobile industry, with the likes of Carphone Warehouse and mobile phone networks. The police forces were also a vital partner for me.
Eventually, the system grew and now contains billions of pieces of discrete information and is accessed over a million times a month by the mobile phone industry, all UK Police forces, major insurers, the second hand trade, recyclers and the public.
CheckMEND.com was launched in 2006 and the CheckMEND database is now used extensively by second hand trade and the public the most common use of CheckMEND by the general public is for when they are buying or selling items from online auction sites like ebay.

Taking it international:

I can now safely say the company is well established and we are starting to focus on business outside the UK. 2008 will see two new launches for CheckMEND.com. One in the US, which the Recipero and CheckMEND teams are extremely excited about, with the U.S. being the largest market for consumer electronics. Not only that, we have already begun the process of launching in Asia too.

Obviously the road to where we are today didn’t all run as smoothly as suggested above, many a challenge was faced and problem overcome, but this is the CheckMEND story… so far…

Have a look at the youtube video : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6zcm9VFNvuQ

Within 24 hours the bag was handed in and a simple search of her name from one of the cards in the bag found her report in seconds and she was quickly contacted and the bag returned intact. Another great result for reportMyloss.com

I have read about reportmyloss.com said Liz and thought I would run a check on the phone even though the only details I had were the make, color and place it was found. It was only trial and error, but I was amazed to see that someone had lost a similar phone nearby. I thought it might be hers so I rang her and asked her to come down to the station to identify it. She was able to identify it by the photographs which is wonderful for her.

Nicola Spencer was naturally delighted to have her phone back;

I never thought I would see it again and now it’s turned up. The most upsetting thing about losing it was the photographs and personal stuff on the phone. I am really impressed with reportmyloss.com and will tell my friends about it. Thank you.

reportMyloss.com is so powerful it is able to match any searched field of information meaning the chances of matching lost and found reports is greatly increased as shown in this first case of recovery.