Success Stories: Burglary & Theft

1. Leadsonline is a much faster system. Our in-house system is backlogged anywhere from 2 weeks to 6 months.
2. Leadsonline is an electronic system. Our in-house system has numerous stores that do not transfer data electronically. We have to pick up the pawn slips and have them entered into our system by hand.
3. Leadsonline is nationwide. Our in-house system can only search systems in Austin. The bad guys know this and will take stolen property to different cities to pawn.
4. Leadsonline is potentially more accurate. Leadsonline data only has to be entered once electronically. Using our in-house system, the data may have to be hand entered more than once. This can create errors.
5. Leadsonline has additional helpful info. Leadsonline has more data concerning phone numbers and addresses of the businesses right on the search page.

– Det. John Hardage 1102
S/E Investigations
Austin (Texas) Police Dept.

“LeadsOnline is a vast improvement over what we were doing before...we're recovering stolen property and it just keeps getting better...Your tech support team is top notch.”

– Det. Rick Whaley
Hamilton County (Tennessee) Sheriff's Office

“I was assigned a Stealing Over $500 investigation involving an employee from a carpet cleaning company. While cleaning victims’ carpets, the employee stole three very expensive rings. During the course of my investigation, I entered the employee’s name into LeadsOnline in an attempt to locate him. The employee is an immigrant from Iraq, and due to his unusual name, I entered just the first name into the LeadsOnline system, which came up with a match. He sold four pieces of jewelry to a pawn shop in St. Charles City (a neighboring county). The victim in my case identified one of the rings as being hers. The ring recovered was valued at $1800.00.

I spoke with the St. Charles City, Missouri Police Department about the offense. Det. Gary Drury from St. Charles City advised me that he possibly had a case on the employee. After speaking with me, he was also able to make a case on the employee.

Through further investigation, I found that the Crestwood, Missouri Police Department also had an interest in the employee. After relaying information to Det. Applebaum from Crestwood, he was able to make the case.

In total, the employee pawned 15 items of jewelry at area pawnshops. He is currently pending trial in circuit court.

Without LeadsOnline, this case may have gone unsolved.”

– Det. Michael Reynolds, #201
Ballwin (Missouri) Police Dept.

“In August 2004, I investigated a felon in possession of a firearm case. I had received information that the suspect was currently living in Medford, Oregon and was in possession of a stolen handgun taken out of burglary in Tulsa, Oklahoma.

I ran the suspect’s name through LEADS and got a hit. The suspect had sold/pawned three digital cameras at a pawn shop in Tulsa prior to coming out to Oregon. The cameras were taken out of the same burglary as the firearm. When I questioned the suspect about pawning any of the stolen property he initially denied it. I was able to show him the LEADS hit and he eventually admitted to his involvement and the property was recovered by the victim.

This stolen property would have never been located using our old “hand search” method. LEADS not only allowed us to check local businesses, but other locations outside of our jurisdiction.”

– Det. Justin Ivens
Medford (Oregon) Police Dept.

“I would like to inform Leads Online of success stories from the Little Rock Police Department.

The first occurred on September 23, 2004, when I was contacted by one of my Burglary victims. Mr. Smith requested I look up a person he thought might be involved in his burglary. I took the name and ran it in your system, but did not receive any information on this subject.

I decided to check the articles and guns in the NCIC area of LeadsOnline. I do this on a weekly basis to check weapons. Mr. Smith had also talked to me about the weapons taken in the burglary of his home. I started going down the list and noticed two weapons that matched the description of the ones taken in Mr. Smith's burglary. Mr. Smith did not have his serial numbers recorded, but stated he could identify the weapons. After calling Mr. Smith I inquired about a television he had reported and it also matched what this person had pawned.

After making an appointment to meet Mr. Smith at the pawn shop, I continued to search the NCIC report. To cut a long story short, I located two other hits on the same page. I was able to solve three burglaries assigned to me within a 15-minute span and recover over $5,000.00 in property.

On November 3, 2004, I located a stolen weapon from Grant County, Arkansas. After checking the name of the person who pawned the weapon using LeadsOnline, I also located where he had pawned an additional three weapons. The weapons have been secured through the Police Hold section of LeadsOnline and warrants will be filed on this subject.

I want to send my gratitude to LeadsOnline for this website. This site is one of the greatest tools a Police Officer could dream of. I would recommend LeadsOnline to all agencies in Law Enforcement.”

– Det. R. Tribble
Burglary Squad
Little Rock (Arkansas) Police Dept.

“Det. Neal was assigned to investigate the theft of two power drills valued at $2250.00 each, that were stolen from a business here in the City of Berkeley. Det. Neal successfully used LeadsOnline and located the two drills at two area pawn shops.

LeadsOnline not only provided Det. Neal with the name of the pawn shops where the drills were pawned, it also provided him with the date and time the drills were pawned as well as the name, address and telephone number of the subject who pawned them.

The drills were recovered and reunited with the owner and a subject was arrested and charged with the theft. Warrants were issued and bond set at $5000.00.

LeadsOnline has been a very valuable tool for this department, as well as others. Thank you for this very important investigative system.”

– Lt. Art Jackson
Berkeley (Missouri) Police Dept.

“Our agency was investigating a robbery of a local pawn shop. Surrounding cities were also working robberies of pawn shops believed to be done by the same people, about 25 robberies in all. While talking to another pawn shop, the manager told me about LeadsOnline. I contacted LeadsOnline and was setup for a free month.

During my investigation, I received a name of a suspect. I put his name in and was shocked to see all the transactions. I, along with the loss prevention employee, went to the pawn shops listed and recovered nearly $6000.00 in stolen jewelry. This enabled me to obtain a warrant on the suspect. It also helped other jurisdictions. He was later picked up on a warrant. I believe this would not have been possible without LeadsOnline.

Our city council did not hesitate to purchase your service. Thanks again, and I look forward to LeadsOnline helping me with all my cases!!!!”

– Det. Sergeant Rodriguez
Midfield (Alabama) Police Dept.

“In July 2003, I received a case file where an elderly lady hired a caretaker to help her around her apartment because of an illness she had. Items started coming up missing, including a one-of-a-kind custom made diamond ring given to her by her deceased husband. The suspect of course denied she ever stole anything from the lady.

I ran her name and her daughter’s name through LeadsOnline and discovered numerous pawns at 2 pawn shop locations by both the suspect and her daughter. I found the stolen ring at one of the pawn shops, and the manager not only had the signed pawn ticket by the suspect, he was able to identify the suspect as the person who pawned the ring.

The suspect had been stealing from her elderly clients and pawning the stolen jewelry. I reported her to the state licensing department and had her license revoked. The suspect was also charged with a Felony for stealing. The victim was so happy to be able to get her late husband's keepsake back.”

– Det. Ron Gondran
Blue Springs (Missouri) Police Dept.

“I had several burglaries of Brake Check stores in June 2004. The suspects stole numerous tools. There were no suspects or leads. No new burglaries of Brake Checks occurred until October 2004.

We developed a name of a suspect and ran pawn searches [on LeadsOnline]. Not only did we find the tools stolen in October and November but also the ones stolen in the June burglaries as well. All were dutifully recorded in the Leadsonline database. We can more than likely clear 11 Burglaries, 2 auto thefts and one burglary of a vehicle all thanks to Leadsonline.”

– Det. John Hardage
Austin (Texas) Police Dept.

“Just to let you know, I have been using the LeadsOnline web search system on the free trial for a few days now. So far, I have found two robbery and burglary suspects located in Montgomery, AL - which is located 140 miles from Jacksonville, AL. We knew that the suspects had moved from the Jacksonville area but did not know where. It appears that the two suspects have been pawning jewelry, which is suspected of being stolen.

We notified Montgomery PD of the two suspects and advised of their history. We were advised by Montgomery PD that the two were also suspects in a number of crimes it that area as well. We were able to advise Montgomery of information we had on the two suspects that will connect them to other crimes.

We would not have been able to obtain this information without LeadsOnline. Thank you.”

– Inv. Mike Denton
Jacksonville (Alabama) Police Dept.

“I just wanted to pass along another success story. We had a report of items stolen from a residence with a good known suspect. We found out the suspect had left the area, so we decided to run his name through LeadsOnline and we were able to locate stolen items he sold in Nashville, Tennessee.

When the suspect returned to our jurisdiction we confronted him with the knowledge and solved the case. This was a felony in Missouri and charges are pending.

Without LeadsOnline, I don’t believe we would have ever known for sure where these items were sold. Thanks again for providing this valuable service to Law Enforcement for a reasonable cost!”

– Lt. Bob Welliver
Boonville (Missouri) Police Dept.

“Since January of this year we have recovered approximately $8,000 in property as a direct result of Leads Online. This has resulted in 17 criminal charges being filed with our District Attorney’s office and has solved/closed 10 felony cases.

This is a very helpful tool for Law Enforcement.”

– Rick Jamison
Chief of Police
Converse (Texas) Police Dept.

“Recently I had a case where an elderly woman was burglarized multiple times. She even had her lock changed because she thought it was someone who may have had a key. It ended up being another woman who had befriended the victim.

This woman [suspect] knew of the elderly lady through her daughter. She worked her way into the house by saying that she wanted to meet the woman who was so close to her daughter. The elderly lady let her in because the eventual thief was so nice, charming, and pleasant. Apparently during these encounters the woman would ask to use the bathroom, but instead would go to the bedroom and steal the victim’s jewelry. This occurred several different times.

Prior to our discovering who the suspect was, the woman asked to borrow $40 dollars from the victim. The following day the [suspect] returned the borrowed $40 dollars and offered to do some small cleaning for the victim. After the [suspect] left, the victim went to return the borrowed $40 dollars to a hidden location in her home, and realized $160 cash was missing. The [suspect] was the only person other than the victim's daughter who knew where the money was kept. The beat officer interviewed the [suspect] about the missing money, however she denied any involvement.

Now having a new possible suspect name to look at, I searched LeadsOnline's database and received a hit on the woman's name. She had pawned jewelry on several different dates all at one pawnshop. The dates of the pawns were checked against the dates of the previously reported burglaries. The dates all matched the same time period. A police hold was placed on the items and photos taken. The photos were shown to the victim, who, upon seeing her missing rings, began to cry. She stated she thought she would never see the rings again, which included her wedding rings and a 50th anniversary ring her husband gave her.

During this investigation, a second burglary victim was also discovered. She likewise had jewelry stolen. This victim lived in the same area and never suspected the woman who lived across from her was responsible for burglarizing her home.

Thank you, LeadsOnline - without your service I may never had solved these burglaries, let alone had enough evidence against the suspected woman to lock her into a solid case. When the suspect was interviewed, she denied any knowledge of the victim's property being stolen. After showing her the pictures of the jewelry now positively identified by the victims along with the LeadsOnline printout of her activity concerning the pawns, she confessed to the burglaries, thus giving a written statement. With LeadsOnline's database it was easy to link everything to the suspect, recover the property and clear the offenses.

Just from these two cases I recovered several thousands of dollars of jewelry.

I would also like to thank the Pawnshop involved, as they were very professional and helpful in this investigation as well as their help in returning the victims property.”

– Det. Ron Keilholz
St. Louis County (Missouri) Police Dept.

“I have nothing but good things to say regarding the Leads Online program. It allows investigators to get the jump on locating property from victims who have been violated, in every sense of the word.

Most recently, I was investigating a burglary of a residence where jewelry, laptop computers, and various other electronic equipment was stolen. The backdoor was kicked open and the house was ransacked throughout. The victim was devastated because his Rolex watch had been listed as a piece of property that was stolen. The watch was expensive, but also had sentimental value attached. The serial number of the watch was made available, and I ran it through Leads Online. Within a few seconds I located the watch which had been pawned in an adjacent city. The watch was recovered and returned to the owner, who was enthusiastically happy that he was able to have his watch back.

As a result, I was able to convict the suspect who committed the burglary above. This case would not have been solved if it wasn’t for the Leads Online program.

Leads Online is a valuable tool for police investigators to use in the recovery of stolen property and the identification of suspects.”

– Det. Jimmy Boatman, #130
Criminal Investigations Division
Cedar Hill (Texas) Police Dept.

“In the early morning hours, Cedar Park Police Department stopped two white males named Daniel and Eric. Daniel and Eric were stopped while carrying several large black bags containing numerous items, which would lead a good officer to believe that a burglary of a habitation occurred.

During the stop, CPPD found Daniel was in possession of a meth pipe, and he was arrested. Well, Eric was set free with out any of the property, so CPPD thought. CPPD requested my department check by a residence. Our Deputy found that the residence had been burglarized. We did not find any physical evidence connecting Daniel or Eric to the residence, other than the recovered property.

I interviewed Daniel in jail, and got nowhere. Daniel's story was that he bumped into Eric and he was carrying all the property. Eric's story was that he bumped into Daniel and he was carrying all the property. Then the story changed to 'they found the property'.

Well to make a long story short, I conducted a check on Eric through Leads Online, and found that he had pawned a collector's Elvis Zippo lighter, which belonged to the victim. Leads Online showed that Eric pawned the lighter on the same day they where stopped by CPPD.

I confronted Eric with the Leads Online information and he then provided me a written statement, which landed burglary charges on both Daniel and Eric. Eric stated that he had hid the lighter in his sock, while he was being searched by CPPD.

This is just one story of how Leads Online has changed the course of my investigation, from possession of stolen property to burglary of a habitation. I have used Leads Online to successfully locate missing persons, track wanted suspects, and in one incident I was able to catch a complainant/victim in an insurance fraud scam.

I recommend Leads Online to any Department or Pawnshop establishment.”

– Det. Donald Foiles
Criminal Investigation Division - Westside Property Crimes
Williamson County (Texas) Sheriff's Office