Charleston County Sheriff’s Office set to host a trailer tagging event

NORTH CHARLESTON, S.C. (WCBD) — This weekend, the Charleston County Sheriff’s Office will offer free registration and ID number stamping for vehicles such as trailers, RTVs, golf carts, and more.

Deputies in Charleston County are working hard this holiday season to reduce thefts in the area.

Mike Thompson, a detective from the Charleston County Sheriff’s office, said items left unsecured in the open are the most commonly stolen items.

“The most common stolen is a landscape trailer or an open trailer, and they’re commonly stolen because people don’t lock them up and just leave them in their front yard or driveways. There, they’re easy to take, not that hard to take or handle, and not very heavy,” said Thompson.

Another thing that makes some vehicles an easy target is that the state of South Carolina does not require trailers to have license plates, making them harder to track if stolen.

“So, they take it, and they remove the sticker that has the VIN on it because you’re not required to have that either, and they just roll along with it unless it’s recovered, and when it is recovered, the victim finds it for sale somewhere such as Facebook market place or craigslist or offer up and even a pawn shop,” said Thompson.

To combat the problem, the Charleston County Sheriff’s Office is inviting the public out on Saturday to a free event where they will engrave an ID number on the property and enter that number into a database, making it easier to track if it is ever stolen and more accessible to return to the rightful owner.

The event will start at 8 am. Saturday at the Berkeley Electric Cooperative in Awendaw.