Approximately $50,000 Worth of Stolen Items to Be Claimed at Tom Green County Sheriff’s Office

Recently, officials from the Tom Green County Sheriff’s Office Criminal Division recovered bulk amounts of stolen property in recent thefts and burglaries, and many people are now behind bars thanks to their efforts.

Now, however, TGSO is gearing up to help victims re-claim their property—property that Public Information Officer Christina Lopez estimates to be at approximately $50,000.

At TGSO Thursday afternoon, officials began the busy task of categorizing the stolen items for inventory. There were so many items laid out that someone could start his or her own resale store and make a nice profit.

Officials sorted through work tools, welders, shovels, lawn mowers, weed eaters, generators and more. They even recovered a motorcycle, a juke box, and a Kubota worth $15,000 on its own, said Lieutenant Terry Lowe.

“We’ve had a lot of people call in and say they lost a lawn mower and stuff, but we’re now just to the point where people can come and look,” said Lowe.

Thus far, the victims of the stolen motorcycle and Kubota have been notified, but there are so many more items to be returned to people.

“Our hope is people will come and claim these items,” said Lopez. “Hopefully, people will have serial numbers where they can claim items that were recovered from these burglaries. There’s items that go back to 2014.”

People interested in finding out if an item has been recovered can contact TGSO at (325)655-8111 and get with the Investigation Division to do a report. Officials can then see if they have the item in their inventory, Lopez added.

“Hopefully, with this exposure, we’ll get this message out and [people] can see [the items]. If you had something stolen, get with the Sheriff’s Office.”

Lowe said one of the problems is, however, a lot of people don’t have serial numbers.

If people don’t have a serial number, Lopez stated it will be important to have some type of proof of purchase. If they don’t, Lopez stated, “It still doesn’t hurt for them to contact us.” Additionally, the PIO said TGSO is planning on picking a day where everything will be displayed so people can come browse and see if they can recover their items. Once that date is set, she will send out notice.

Lopez also stated, after this, she hopes people will be reminded of the importance of keeping track of important items and utilizing a serial number record keeping system for future.

As for the items that go unclaimed, Lowe stated that the items will be presented before a judge, who will either order the items destroyed, or allow TGSO to keep the items if they can be put to use. For instance, a ladder might be one of those items.

The timeframe of that happening depends on the item. Therefore, it’s important to claim lost items before they are no longer available.

Note: To scroll all the images in the inventory, go to the main picture above. There are red blocks beneath it to the right of the screen. Click on each block to see a new picture.