DENVER (KMGH) - They help drivers find their way, but Global Positioning Systems can also lead complete strangers right to your home.
41 Action News' sister station in Denver, 7NEWS, found dozens of GPS units for sale at metro area pawn shops. 7NEWS found personal information on those GPS units and also discovered many home addresses, some phone numbers, work locations and even banking institutions.
At one downtown Denver pawn shop, 7NEWS found a Garmin GPS with a home address in Centennial. We tracked the address to Craig Velenski. When asked if he had recently pawned a GPS, he told us what we anticipated; it had been stolen from his vehicle in a smash and grab.
"Thanks for the call," said Velenski. "It's kind of a worry to have your personal electronics out there with all of your addresses and contact information."
After hearing from 7NEWS, Velenski agreed to meet us at the pawn shop to find out when it was pawned and by whom.
Velenski showed his driver's license to compare to the home address saved on the GPS. They were a match.
"You have to have an affidavit for everything that comes in here, correct?" 7NEWS reporter Marshall Zelinger asked a manager.
"Yup," said David, the manager.
"Can you show us who brought that GPS unit in?" asked Zelinger.
"I can't because it's against the rules," said David. "You have to contact the Denver Police Department."
Pawn Shops Report Serial Numbers To Police
When a person pawns an item, they are required to show their driver's license and sign a declaration swearing the item is theirs to pawn. The declaration includes the serial number for that item. Those forms get reviewed by police to cross check for any stolen items, based on serial number. Velenski never reported his GPS stolen. One of the reasons was because he didn't know the serial number.
"If I had reported it stolen, I would have said, 'I've lost a black, Nuvi Garmin GPS. I doubt very much that that would have caused it not to be on the shelf," said Velenski.
He also said he didn't want to waste police officer's time or taxpayer money over a GPS.
"They wouldn't have gone through every pawn shop looking for a black, Garmin GPS, which is the only description that I would have been able to give them," said Velenski.
"(Had it been reported stolen), it would be in the back and not for sale," said David. "Only if the serial number's been reported stolen. If he'd reported it stolen, it would have been taken care of."
7NEWS found the home addresses of multiple people from checking GPS units in six pawn shops.
On a Magellan GPS, we found the home address and phone number of a woman in Lakewood. When we contacted her, she didn't even know she had stored that information in what used to be her GPS.
Police: Serial Numbers "Not Very Often" Reported
Police officers will take the report for a stolen item, but without the serial number it's not very likely the item will be reunited with the owner.
"We want to know when these things are getting stolen. No matter how small the crime may be, we want to know about it," said Denver Police Detective Christen Drennan. "Yes, maybe the victim isn't out that much in a monetary sense, but it still means a lot more in the grand schemes if these crimes are being reported."
"How often is a GPS stolen and you get a serial number from that GPS, from the owner?" asked Zelinger.
"Not very often," said Drennan.
"If I have that serial number, I report that serial number to police and that GPS ends up in a pawn shop, is there going to be a match and I'm going to see it again?"
"There most definitely will be a match," said Drennan.
She confirmed that police do cross reference all items with serial numbers that end up in pawn shops.
"If you want the item back, the most common way that's going to happen is if you report it to us," said Drennan. "You have your serial number and then we can track it if somebody sends it into the pawn shop."
More often than ending up pawn shops, Drennan said many thieves will sell the item shortly after stealing it from a car.
"They will usually have it sold within an hour or two. They'll get a quick $20, easy money," said Drennan. "Once somebody's caught selling stolen property to a pawn shop, they're likely not going to do it again."
Password Protect Device; Keep Serial Number Records
On a few GPS units in the pawn shops, we couldn't access the mapping programs because the device had been password protected.
As far as the pawn shops were concerned, none of the GPS units were reported stolen because the serial numbers were not flagged by police.
"They do have some deniability as to whether or not they knew the item was stolen," said Drennan about pawn shops.
Since the person pawning the item signs a declaration swearing it's their item to pawn, the punishment would fall on that individual if the device is determined to be stolen. The item would be returned to its owner and the pawn shop would be out whatever money it paid for the item.
Since Velenski hadn't reported
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