GPS tracker leads Chicago police to warehouse full of stolen items

CHICAGO, Ill. — The Chicago Police Department is offering a chance for the public to reclaim their stolen property.

All of the stolen items were recovered last Wednesday during a major operation on the city's West Side. 140 items worth about $100,000 were recovered and available to be reclaimed. There are numerous tools, large pieces of landscaping equipment, auto parts and even a sword.

The major auto theft unit came across these items last week after a man said he used GPS to track his stolen vehicle. He found it near a large warehouse on the West Side.

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The owner of a landscaping company from Evanston came by and recovered about $1,000 of equipment that was stolen from his property back in August. "We didn't think we would ever see it again and it was just the most amazing phone call that we got yesterday from one of the detectives here that basically saw one of our pieces of equipment and we engraved it, actually, in a way that would have our phone number and our name and information on it so they called to our office and said we found some of your equipment and would like you to come down to the 10th district to recover it and sure enough, we found most of the our stuff that was stolen from us," Paul Klitzkie told WMAQ.

Klitzkie said the key to recovering his items was he either marked or stamped each tool or piece of equipment with a serial number and his company name. That was crucial to get most of his items back.

NBC/WMAQ