Photo By Laurie Pearson | Lost and found items can be reunited with the rightful owners with just a phone call...... read more read more
The Marine Corps Police Department is reaching out in July to reunite lost and found items to their rightful owners, as their stash continues to build aboard Marine Corps Logistics Base Barstow, Calif.
“Lost, found, and abandoned property is defined as deserted, unclaimed property discovered aboard the installation,” said Michael Reyes, physical security specialist for the base. “Found property is turned over to the MCPD for proper handling in accordance with Department of Defense regulations (DOD 4160.21 and DOD 4160.21-M-1).”
The Lost and Found custodians on base are Charles Ayers, physical security specialist, along with Reyes. Once a lost or abandoned item is found and turned in to MCPD, it is their responsibility to take custody of it and keep it safe until it can be reunited with its rightful owner. Their first step is to announce or advertise what items have been turned in via the Prospector, or a Base Widest email notification twice per month.
“The announcement will provide a brief description of items along with contact information, and instructions for reclaiming the property,” Reyes said.
There are not a lot of items turned in, on average, but when they are it is important to Reyes and Ayers to reunite the items to their rightful owners.
“We do a chain of custody,” Ayers said. “Items are treated like evidence. That’s the level of importance we place on lost and found items.”
Anyone wishing to claim ownership of items will be required to provide as detailed of a description as possible, along with proof of ownership, such as registration or receipts of purchase, in order to retrieve the article. Copies of those documents are placed in the case notes for future reference. They hold the items for a minimum of 45 days giving military personnel, their families and civilians working on base plenty of time to retrieve lost items.
After 45 days, if the owner is not located and the item not returned, then the custodians prepare the items for final disposition.
“This means that it goes through a disposal process, which may or may not include a disposal board meeting to determine the fair market value of the items and then providing the custodians with disposal instructions,” explained Reyes.
If the board instructs Reyes and Ayers to dispose of the items, the articles are turned over to Supply of Defense Reutilization Marketing Office for further disposition, along with a copy of the disposal board findings and proper forms.
“We are providing this information in this format to ensure that people are aware of the Lost and Found Section aboard the base,” explained Reyes. “We take this very serious, ensuring that each step is followed before property is destroyed or disposed of and want to give people ample opportunities to regain their possessions.”
Most of the time, Ayers explained, items are successfully reunited with their owners and it is not necessary to go through the disposal process. Such as the case with a wallet with credit cards and some cash that was returned to a retiree who had visited the base.
“We also returned a set of keys to an active duty Marine,” Ayers said. “We want people to know that there are honest people out there and they will turn stuff in so contact us!”
If you have any questions, please feel free to contact Mr. Ayers at 577-6858 or Mr. Reyes at 577-6855.
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| Date Taken: | 07.27.2017 |
| Date Posted: | 08.10.2017 16:42 |
| Story ID: | 244490 |
| Location: | BARSTOW, CALIFORNIA, US |
| Web Views: | 93 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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