First, Cisco does not have a process for reporting and tracking stolen equipment.
Nevertheless, that didn't stop Cisco from releasing back in 2004 a stolen product policy statement disavowing any and all warranty and/or support for stolen Cisco products.
Fortunately, an elite alliance of secondary Cisco equipment dealers called UNEDA (United Network Equipment Dealer Association) has a process for reporting and tracking stolen Cisco equipment.
With combined annual marketplace revenue of $5 billion and a membership that retains up to $1 billion in accessible secondary Cisco inventory ready for overnight delivery, UNEDA members provide millions of pieces of secondary Cisco equipment to tens of thousands of customers on a global basis each year.
UNEDA Treasurer and Board Director, Reggie Grant, and past UNEDA President and Board Director, John Stafford, suggest the following steps for reporting and tracking stolen Cisco equipment.
Steps on how to report and track stolen Cisco equipment:
Step 1.
Check your Sales Invoice to determine the Serial Numbers of the Cisco equipment that was stolen.
Step 2.
If you don't have a copy of your Sales Invoice or the Invoice does not have the Serial Numbers listed, contact the Dealer who sold you the Cisco equipment that was stolen in order to learn the Cisco Sales Order Number (SO) of the Invoice.
This Cisco Sales Order Number will have 8 digits starting with a 4.
Step 3.
Once you know the 8 digit Cisco Sales Order Number call Cisco directly at 1-800-553-6387, choose Option #2.
Tell the Cisco representative that you have an 8 digit Cisco Sales Order Number that you want to use to determine the Serial Numbers of stolen Cisco equipment. The Cisco representative will then transfer you to the Cisco department that can retrieve the Serial Numbers from your 8 digit Cisco Sales Order Number.
Step 4.
Once you have the Serial Numbers of the stolen Cisco equipment, file a Police Report and get a copy of the Police Report.
Step 5.
Instruct the Dealer who sold you the Cisco equipment that was later stolen to remove the Serial Numbers of the equipment that was stolen from any Cisco Support Contracts (i.e SMARTnet service contracts) it may be covered under.
When you have a copy of your Police Report, contact the elite alliance of secondary Cisco equipment dealers called UNEDA (United Network Equipment Dealer Association), which has an internal database that tracks stolen Cisco equipment.
UNEDA will flag your stolen Cisco equipment if it happens to come through its massive $1 billion secondary Cisco inventory.
UNEDA can also pass along your stolen equipment information to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.
Note:
There used to be a national database of stolen technology equipment maintained by the REACT Task Force (Rapid Enforcement Allied Computer Team) located in Santa Clara, California. The funding for this law enforcement group was cut a little over a year ago. The agents were deployed to different duties.
Cisco would work with this law enforcement team, but since has not done anything about stolen Cisco equipment other than keep internal information on its own equipment that's been stolen. To the best of our knowledge, Cisco's information is not shared.
UNEDA attempted to get Cisco to work with it, but Cisco refused to cooperate. In fact, the Cisco representative threatened the UNEDA representative with a restraining order, if he tried to make contact again.
