HENRICO COUNTY, Va. (WTVR) -- A man whose car was broken into in his West End neighborhood discovered his stolen property for sale online -- and helped cops catch the alleged thieves.
"I was angry and kind of surprised. I mean it's a pretty quiet neighborhood. We don't have a lot of trouble,” said Pearson Hurst.
However, Hurst said someone stole several items from his car.
"They took a GPS unit off the dash-board. They rifled through my glove box and took a few UFB flash drives,” said Hurst.
Pearson admits that he forgot to lock his car Monday night.
Then, Hurst said he spotted his GPS for sale while browsing through ads on Craiglist. So he called police.
"The detective that was in charge of the case with the police encouraged me to try to set up a meet with the guy that was selling them to try to purchase one,” said Hurst.
After going back and forth with the seller, Hurst said he set up a date and time to meet him at a 7-Eleven parking lot, where a Henrico police detective stepped in.
"We do have two male juvenile suspects that we have talked to. And we are working with the detectives about placing charges against these two,” said Lieutenant Linda Toney, Henrico police.
Lieutenant Linda Toney would not go into details as to how it all went down, but said the public's help can often tie crimes together.
"People don't always realize how much just one simple thing if they're aware of property they had," said Lt. Toney. "They hear about it. Maybe, they see it and how that can help us link different cases together.”
And Toney wants the public to know this:
“What we want to remind people is to Stop and Lock. It’s such a simple thing to think about. And it’s the number one way that we can prevent Larcenies from autos,” said Lt. Toney.
A prevention tip that Hurst said he plans to follow in the future, because, as he says, "it’s the best deterrent you can possibly do.”
Henrico police said there were five reported larcenies from vehicles this week in the West End Manor.
They say they’ve recovered some of the stolen GPS devices and encourage anyone who has not filed a report to call police at 804-501-5000.
