More stolen guns off the streets in South Carolina

“Well I’ve just got to share with you that I have recovered two more stolen guns utilizing your NCIC hit matches. The success I’ve had is amazing. These weapons are valued at approximately $350.00 and $450.00 All the other folks in the office are wondering how to use this feature. I am happily showing them. The more eyes we have getting stolen guns off the street and back to their rightful owner is beneficial. Thanks Leads for making it so easy!”

Det. Kelly Lovelace
York County Sheriff’s Office
South Carolina

Guns, including one stolen from a Navy officer in Georgia, recovered by South Carolina detective

“I was able to recover two firearms while working second shift on a slow night. I went through NCIC hits and I located a couple of promising matches. After following up on these, I determined that one of the guns was on a case I was assigned to investigate. The weapon was a Thompson-Center Prohunter 12 gauge shotgun and was fairly expensive. The owner was thrilled to have this returned. The second weapon was a Charles Daly .45 pistol that had been stolen from a Navy officer who was deployed on a Submarine when his home was broken into. It was stolen from Kingsland, Georgia and I spoke with a detective from that jurisdiction and made arrangements to have the weapon returned.”

Det. Kelly Lovelace
York County Sheriff’s Office
South Carolina

Automated hit from online investigations system locates a stolen shotgun

“I received an NCIC hit for a stolen shotgun from a November 2009 burglary in Greenville, South Carolina. I was able to confirm the shotgun as the correct shotgun from the burglary, and I contacted the shop in Greenville to place a hold on the shotgun. Investigator Perron with Greenville County Sheriff’s Department assisted me in recovering the shotgun, which was turned back to the victim. This has been my first NCIC hit recovery through Leads.”

Det. Phil Tripp
Rock Hill Police Department
South Carolina

Several sentimental guns recovered for victimized family in South Carolina

“I was assigned a Larceny report involving several guns that were stolen from my victim. Although the guns have monetary value to them, they were more sentimental because they were inherited from various family members. The victim provided a name of another family member who he thought may have been responsible for the theft of the guns. I checked LeadsOnline and found he sold 10 stolen guns over the course of a three month period. The majority of the guns had already been sold to a second party by then, but the pawn shop was kind enough to contact the current owners, advise them they were stolen, and offer them store credit so they would not be out any money. I was able to recover all of the stolen guns and signed seven felony warrants on the suspect.”

Inv. Christopher Brumlow
Spartanburg County Sheriff’s Office
South Carolina

Suspect confesses to $70,000 in metal theft when presented with evidence provided by electronic reporting

“While investigating a larceny of approximately $70,000 worth of copper occurring over an eight month period from a local manufacturing facility, a suspect was developed in the case. Once the suspect was apprehended in the act of stealing more copper from the business he was subsequently interviewed. After being presented with the data of all of his transactions from selling copper that were retrieved form LeadsOnline, the suspect gave a full confession. After the confession, the subject was charged with 14 counts of larceny and 14 counts of Burglary in the second degree. Thanks to the easy access to LeadsOnline, I was able to quickly gather all of the subject’s sales data, which resulted in a successful interview and confession.”

Deputy Garrett Cash
Spartanburg County Sheriff’s Office Uniform Patrol
South Carolina

LeadsOnline alerts law enforcement about stolen metal

“Our agency was investigating the theft of scrap metal. The same address was being targeted several times. We had a good idea of who was doing it, but even though there was video, the suspects were covering their faces. We got a suspect to start cooperating, and she told us who was involved. We started checking the name of the suspect that had the scrap metal permit, and through LeadsOnline, we were able to match up the items the suspect scrapped with the incident dates. Since we were able to corroborate the cooperating suspect’s statements, we were able to confront the scrapper with this information during the interview. The second suspect began to confess and give us names of other suspects. Having some of the scrap yards in our county on LeadsOnline really speeds us the investigation.”

Sgt. Henry Beck
Spartanburg County Sheriff’s Office
South Carolina

Police discover retail thieves and secondhand clerk working together

“While working a burglary case, I found similar items being sold at a local business. Further investigation revealed these were not the items; however, after going back approximately 10 months, it was found this subject and another girl had pawned about $50,000 worth of new items. I was able to determine the Rosetta Stone items had been shipped to a local Target, and while working with their loss prevention, they were able to go back on video and see the suspects on tape stealing these items. After making the arrest on the two suspects, we discovered the pawn shop clerk was also involved, and with the help of Target loss prevention donating items to be sold, we were able to make an arrest on the pawn shop clerk. We recovered approximately $5,000 worth of items that the shop still had.”

Inv. Bryant Hinson
Richland County Sheriff’s Department
South Carolina

Business catches employee stealing $1,700 worth of property

“I investigated a breach of trust type of case in which a company’s employee had been removing property from the business and selling it to pawn shops for cash. The victim was unaware of exactly how much property had been stolen at the time of the report. Using the employees name to search, I discovered that the employee had sold approximately $1,700 worth of property and lawn care equipment to multiple pawn shops. The victim was able to identify all of their property, and it was quickly recovered. This discovery resulted in an arrest.”

Det. Brian Smith
Lexington County Sheriff’s Department
South Carolina

Small law enforcement agency budget eased by using LeadsOnline

“I work for The University of Texas System Police at one of the smaller components. As such we have very limited resources. Beginning in the fall semester, we started experiencing a string of thefts with no suspects or leads. I heard about your service from another agency. The idea seemed better than thumbing through pawn tickets. I signed up for your 30-day free trial. We recently had four musical instruments stolen. I put in the serial number for the first instrument; no success. I put in the serial number for the second instrument; I found a match (I checked three times because I couldn’t believe it). Then I found another match. I even found, through the keyword search, the first instrument. (The Music Department had given me an incomplete serial number.) In total, I found 3 out of the 4 instruments for a recovery of $3,000. This one recovery will pay for 3 years service with money left over. Once I had the suspect’s name, I found he had pawned 24 instruments in Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi and all over Texas. Through regular channels, I found two outstanding felony warrants from Nebraska and South Carolina. LeadsOnline will surely help recover tens if not hundreds of thousands of dollars. Hopefully it will also enhance the penalties for this professional thief. Let me say thanks. If not for the free trial, I would be chasing my tail forever.”

Officer Mark Pierce
University of Texas System Police
Texas