If you have filed a report with the Jasper County Sheriff’s Office about stolen property, those items might be sitting on one of two pallets, waiting for you to claim them.
The sheriff’s office announced this week there are about two pallets filled with a wide assortment of items seized at some point over the past two years. Ranging from hand tools to jewelry and similar small items, all of this property was seized in 2015 or 2016.
Deputy Jeremy Burdess said the items were recovered in the course of a variety of types of investigations. However, the one thing all the items have in common is that none of the property was listed by businesspeople or homeowners when they filed reports with the sheriff’s office.
“This only applies if someone has filed a report with us,” Burdess said. “If a report was made to the Newton Police or Prairie City, Monroe or Colfax, or another police department, you’ll have to go to them.”
Burdess said it’s common for victims of a crime to miss items when making a list for a report, especially if a building was burglarized. However, from time to time, a large quantity of recovered items backs up, and law enforcement agencies no longer need to store items that aren’t part of active investigations.
He said Jasper County Attorney Mike Jacobsen won’t allow the sheriff’s office to dispose of items on the pallets until more of an effort is made to locate the victims and return their property to them. A post on the sheriff’s office Facebook page is one of the agency’s methods in getting the word out.
“We’d like to contact as many people as possible,” he said. “Most likely, this property was taken from someone right here in Jasper County.”
The deputy said the list of recovered items includes many types of tools, such as hand tools and larger ones like bolt cutters. There are also cordless power tools and some random jewelry.
Law enforcement frequently runs into much larger caches of stolen goods. Last week, the Montgomery County (Tenn.) Sheriff’s Office announced about $250,000 worth of items had been recovered in Tennessee and Kentucky as part of theft rings, ranging from riding mowers to flatbed trailers and a Polaris four-wheeler.
Burdess said he didn’t want to use images of the property publicly, as it’s the victim’s responsibility to describe any missing items as much as they can — down to a scratch or another minor characteristic, if possible. Serial or lot numbers are always helpful.
“Anyone can point at a chainsaw and say, ‘Hey, that’s my chainsaw,’” Burdess said. “What we need folks to do is to have a report or a case number handy and tell us, in detail, what they’re looking for. Don’t simply ask if we have, say, a Homelite chainsaw. Tell us everything you know about its appearance, along with the size and model number.”
Burdess can be reached through the sheriff office’s main number, 641-792-5912.
Contact Jason W. Brooks at 641-792-3121 ext. 6532 or jbrooks@newtondailynews.com