MOSES LAKE — The holidays may be the season for giving, but for some people, it’s also the season for taking, and what they’re taking could belong to you. 

Washington has one of the highest rates of burglary in the nation, according to FBI data, and property crimes spike dramatically in December due to holiday travel and increased shopping. And unfortunately, more often than not the thieves get away with it. Only 15.5% of property crimes in Washington in the last year were cleared, according to the FBI. 

One reason, said Jon Shelness, owner of MyPropertyID, is that the items that are stolen are difficult to identify. 

“People are more rarely convicted of being in possession of stolen property than you think,” Shelness said. “Because it's not just difficult, it is nearly impossible to prove unless you have a record of the make, model and serial number. And having that identifying mark in the form of a tag is a signal to a criminal that this is registered property.” 

Homeowners frequently don’t keep records of the things they own, which can make it easy to resell, and also difficult to replace even if your home is insured, according to Juli Rasmussen of Country Financial. 

“Years ago, my house was robbed,” Rasmussen said at a home buyers seminar in March. “You don’t know what you have until you go to get it and it’s not there … They took all my best clothes, all of my jewelry. They wiped me out, and I had to go literally (through the house to identify missing items).” 

Rasmussen recommended taking photos of the house room by room, so there’s a record of what’s there in case it’s stolen or damaged and the insurance company needs to replace it. 

“Criminals learn among themselves that small businesses and homeowners and renters never keep a record of their property,” Shelness said. “They might install a security camera, but if the criminal wears a mask, what good is that? And alarm systems typically have about a five- to 10-minute period before the police are alerted, and typically about 90% of alarm calls are false alarms.” 

There is a program in the U.S. called Operation ID, which allows homeowners to engrave an identifying number, usually a driver’s license number, on valuable possessions and keep a list. This allows police to contact the owner if the property turns up in a bust later.  

“Once your items are marked, Operation ID stickers are available to place in your windows to advertise your participation in this program that deters crime,” the Grant County Sheriff’s Office wrote on its website. “We encourage each Block Watch group to purchase an engraver, usually $10 to $20 at a local hardware store, and share it among the group members for marking of their valuables.” 

MyPropertyID goes a step further, Shelness said, marking the items with a traceable tag and keeping the data in a private database. The data includes the make, model and serial number of every expensive item, so it can be identified later with no ambiguity. 

“The gold is in the make model and serial number, and the criminal realizing that if they see marked property, there's a really good chance that the owner of that property is going to file a police report,” Shelness said. “The biggest fear that criminals have is they will be caught with property that can be traced back to the rightful owner and used as evidence in a court case.” 

The Grant County Sheriff’s Office website lists ways homeowners can protect their property, including installing deadbolts on doors, keeping the exterior well lighted, keeping trees and shrubbery trimmed back to prevent a burglar from hiding in it. More suggestions can be found at https://www.grantcountywa.gov/408/Home-Security-Ideas.  More information on MyPropertyID can be found at mypropertyidregistry.com.