Web site allows public to see if property was stolen

AUSTIN (AP) - Just in time for the holidays, a new Web site allows people to register valuable property and check whether items they are buying have been reported stolen.

Trace.com, a subsidiary of MyThings Inc., is collaborating with the Texas Police Chiefs Association, Texas Department of Public Safety and more than 500 local police departments and sheriff's offices in the state.

The Web site will let people register property, report property that has been stolen and check whether an item is reported stolen.

The company already has partnered with more than half the police forces in the United Kingdom and some international law enforcement organizations. Trace's Texas project is its first law enforcement partnership in the United States, according to a statement issued by the police chiefs association.

"Having a single database of stolen items that all Texans — from recent crime victims, to eBay customers, to antique dealers and pawnbrokers — can access will help us identify and return stolen property," said Abilene Police Chief Melvin Martin, president of the police chiefs association.

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On the Net: www.trace.com