Will someone please correct me if i am wrong!!!I am getting the impression that these items were not reported to the Police as stolen when they were illegally taken, otherwise i am going to ASSUME that they would have been a record somewhere in a POLICE FILE of this theft,and it would follow if a similar or Same type of item was recovered then a phone call would be all that was needed to have the owner come down and identify the item. I am thinking here that the Insurance has already paid for these items so why does the Police Dept not give them a WEEK or MONTH (By Law ??)  to Identify the Items and after that auction them off and use the money to supplement their Operating Budget.
a Suggestion would be to have an Identification Program like what we have here where you can have a Police Officer (Auxillary) come mark your equipment or you can for a small fee have the use of the Police Electronic marking Pencil to do it yourself, you can use your ID No. or anything that identifies with you as your mark. most people have computers you can have an excel sheet and keep a log of all your marked items for identification if/when needed