Theft tracking system and method
First Claim
1. A method for reporting property theft, comprising the steps of:
- (a) establishing a user account related to at least one item of personal property;
(b) storing information related to said at least one item;
(c) receiving notice that said at least one item has been stolen;
(d) determining whether said account is active; and
(e) issuing an alert.
5 Assignments
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
A method and system for registering information about a variety of property items either centrally or in distributed fashion enables quick notification of proper authorities when the property item is stolen. The system can invoke police authority networks and/or a private security system network. Various types of information can be stored in a central database accessible over a public network such as the Internet, or locally on a personal credential item, such as a security card carried with the owner/user of the property item. Information types can include descriptive textual information, visual information, and auditory information about the property item and its owner or user. When the item is discovered stolen, the card can be scanned at a variety of participating card reader devices, which can include ATM machines, retail point-of-sale scanners, gas station pumps, and any other properly equipped public/private/commercial devices. In this way, the system of the present invention automates the notification of proper authorities, and/or the public in general via a network, which may be the Internet, of the theft of a particular property item.
18 Citations
25 Claims
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1. A method for reporting property theft, comprising the steps of:
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(a) establishing a user account related to at least one item of personal property; (b) storing information related to said at least one item; (c) receiving notice that said at least one item has been stolen; (d) determining whether said account is active; and (e) issuing an alert. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 25)
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13. A system for reporting property theft, comprising:
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an account management component for managing at least one user account, said account being related to at least one item of personal property; a storage component for storing information related to said at least one item; a notification component for providing notice that said at least one item has been stolen, said notification component including means for determine whether said account is active; and an alerting component for notifying an authority of said stolen item. - View Dependent Claims (14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22)
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23. A security information device, comprising:
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means for storing user identity and property information, said information including image and text information; means for presenting said information to a security system so as to alert at least one authority of a theft of property, said security system including an account management component for storing user account information, a notification receiving component for receiving said presented information and determining a geographical location where said information is being presented, and an alerting component for alerting at least one authority determined to be appropriate based on said determined geographical location.
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24. A theft tracking and notification system, comprising:
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means for storing information about at least one property item and a plurality of notification authorities; means for receiving notification of a theft of said at least one property item; geographic alert determination means for determining a first subset of said plurality of authorities to alert to said theft based on said stored notification authority information; and property item alert determination means for determining a second subset of said plurality of authorities to alert to said theft based on said stored property item information.
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Specification