PANAMA CITY — From cars to trucks to personal belongings or even pets — anything that can be stolen may be reclaimed with the help of a local theft-prevention social media page.
Stolen in Bay County, a community-based Facebook page, was started with the intention of catching thieves and reclaiming stolen property by spreading the word to more people than just law enforcement. Creator Julie Pardue said the page has a solid success rate so far. Contributing to that is the growing number of local participants, at 1,561 followers, since its genesis about a year ago.
“Before, there was no place to post stolen property — no place at all,” Pardue said. “But people have started to pick it up and pick it up. It’s really gone crazy.”
Pardue said the idea came to her after her son’s four-wheeler was stolen. He had worked hard to honestly earn the four-wheeler, only to have it stripped away from him. When Pardue turned to social media to ask the community to be on the lookout for the four-wheeler, social media had nothing local to offer, she said, so she created “Stolen Items of Bay County.”
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“Police just don’t have enough resources to be everywhere all the time,” Pardue said. “But social media does.”
The proof is on the page.
As recently as May 14, a Chevy Silverado was reported stolen from St. Andrews on the page. A day later, one of the page’s subscribers spotted it in the parking lot of a local walking park and sent a response to the posting. After Pardue made a brief call to the police, she had good news to report.
“Truck is found. Yippee,” Pardue wrote. “Thanks everyone for those watchful eyes of yours. We all can’t stand a thief.”
Most burglary or theft crimes are propelled by addictive drug use, according to law enforcement officials, so the amount of those incidents reflects a deeper issue relating to the pervasiveness of addictive drugs in the community. And with the increased presence of heroin and ICE methamphetamine in Bay County over the past several months, law enforcement has seen numerous reports of break-ins, thefts and the reselling of those items to feed addictions.
Scaling back the presence of addictive substances is important to decrease the amount of thefts countywide. But for Pardue, reuniting people with a possession they’ve worked hard to acquire is a benefit in itself, she said.
“I’m happy because they’re happy to get their stuff back,” Pardue added.