Police site reuniting theft with victims with stolen items claims first success

HertsReunited.co.uk was set up earlier this month by Herts Police and the county’s police and crime commissioner David Lloyd. The site features a library of photos of found and receovered items, as well as the ability to report lost or stolen property from around the county.

After less than a fortnight of being live, three suspected stolen bicycles have been reclaimed by their owners as a result of seeing them featured on the website Befort the launch of the site, two bike thefts were reported to police by two 18-year-old University of Hertfordshire students and another suspected stolen bike was seen for sale on an auction website.

Police executed a warrant at an address in Almond Walk, Hatfield, on January 12 and recovered ten suspected stolen bikes. Two men were arrested and are currently on police bail.

All the bikes were featured on HertsReunited from its start date on January 14 and so far two have already been reunited with their, while the third bike is going through proof of ownership to ensure the claimant is genuine.

PC David Murray from the University of Hertfordshire Policing Team said: “It gives me great satisfaction to be able to give property back to the rightful owners and I would urge other cyclists who have lost their bikes recently, or think they have been stolen, to check out the website as we may have them in safe keeping.

“Owners simply need to contact us through the website and provide some proof of ownership in order to have their property returned.”

InspJeff Scott, the project manager for the website, said: “I’m delighted that there has been such a swift success for HertsReunited. I would urge people to ensure that their bikes and other property is security-marked in some way, or registered with Immobilise.com, and that you keep receipts for goods that you buy as this does help when it comes to claiming back an item.”

Herts Commissioner Lloyd added: “This is a great success story and I’m sure there are many more to come. It is vital for the police to put the needs of the public first - this is one such service that directly helps victims of crime and those who have suffered a loss.”

Visit the website at www.hertsreunited.co.uk.