If you know your property has been confiscated by police as a result of a seizure or recovery, please call the Evidence Control Unit at 204-986-6280 to determine if your property is here. We will be happy to check on your behalf to determine if your property is here, however public viewing of recovered property is not permitted.
When you contact our office, please have your occurrence (file) number and other details (i.e. Officer's name, date of event, property description, etc) ready. This will aid our staff in locating your property.
In some cases, special release procedures are required in order to preserve necessary court evidence for prosecution purposes. Please contact us to ensure your property can be released prior to court and an appointment can be made to perform the release.
In certain circumstances, you may send written authorization with the agent in the form of a letter signed by you. If you have received a letter from us, please read it carefully for special instructions including whether or not an 'agent' attendance is authorized or permitted.
Stolen bicycles
If you're bike has been stolen, you must report your bike lost or stolen to the police. It is advisable that you record and report the serial number to aid in the potential recovery of the bike. The better the description you can provide the better the chance of recovery/identification.
If your bike has been stolen, your first course of action should be to make a report.
You can:
- Call our 204-986-6222 phone line
- Use our online reporting system
- Visit Winnipeg Police Headquarters.
Before making your report, have your bike’s serial number and any unique marks/engravings (distinguishable meaning unique to that individual bike, not a group of bikes) that will aid us matching your report to the bikes we find. The officer taking your complaint will ask you for this information.
S/he will be able to search our record systems almost immediately. Keep in mind that if you have unique descriptors but no serial number, it will likely be in our records system and can be found that way,
Viewing recovered bicycles
Our members do recover a number of bicycles throughout the year and each one is entered into our database with the aim of matching them with their rightful owner.
Once we have processed these bikes, they are sent to the City of Winnipeg Bicycle Recovery Office. If you have a good description of your stolen bicycle (serial number, colour, etc.), you may wish to contact their office through the City of Winnipeg 311 Service Centre.
Some bikes end up in our Evidence Control Unit. This facility is a secure facility, meaning access to the general public is not permitted.
If you have reported a complete detailed description of your bike, our staff may be able to find your bike when new bikes come in. If they do, you will be notified.
Unclaimed Property
With some restrictions and conditions, finders are permitted to claim property if it is unclaimed by an owner after 30 days. It is the finders responsibility to contact the Evidence Control Unit at P1 - 266 Graham Avenue, 204-986-6280, in order to make arrangements to pick up the found property in the event the owner does not claim it.
The following describes return restrictions and includes, but is not limited to, the following:
- Firearms/ammunition/fireworks (including air rifles/ammo) of any kind are not returned to finders.
- Anything which would bring discredit to the police or hinder police efforts to make Winnipeg a safe community (i.e. pornographic materials, radar detectors, liquor/alcohol, prescription and non-prescription narcotics/pills, unsafe products of any type, etc) are not returned to finders.
- Cash amounts less than 25 dollars are not returned to finders.
- Any items that are prohibited to possess (prohibited knives, etc) are not returned to finders.
- Hazardous goods of any kind (including blood contaminated products and other biohazards) are not returned to finders.
- Any item that a lawful owner has been identified for, but is unclaimed (includes wallets and contents, purses, tote bags, etc) are not returned to finders.
- Any technical product that contains information therein that could potentially result in private information being released to a third party unknowingly (ie. computers, gaming consoles, cell phones, personal organizers and in some cases digital cameras (dependent on content/deletion capabilities), etc. are not returned to finders.
- Unsafe item(s) or anything that cannot be proven as safe to use/operate such as Baby seats, strollers, motorcycle helmets, etc. are not returned to finders.
- Anything else, at the discretion of Property staff, that is considered not suitable for return for a variety of reasons/circumstances not covered above. In these cases you may contact our office for an explanation if required.
This service is currently only available at the West District Station - 2321 Grant Avenue.
Dropping off Evidence at a Winnipeg Police Service Station Drop Box
Items left behind may provide valuable evidence in helping police identify the suspect(s). If any items are discovered that do not belong to you (e.g. tools, documents, clothing) and you are able to physically, safely and legally transport the item(s), please bring your report number and the located item(s) to any Winnipeg Police Service Centre to put in a drop box.
Prior to attending a station please complete the following:
- Make a Police report (online if applicable* or with an officer), ensuring the report includes the location you found the item.
- See if your report qualifies for online reporting.
Prior to putting the evidence in the drop box:
- Include a note on the bag/envelope that the evidence is in which includes:
- Your report number (e.g. C240001234)
- Your full name
- Your phone number
- The date/time of the incident
- The type of incident (i.e. Break & Enter)
When handling found evidence:
- Try to handle it as little as possible in an attempt to preserve any possible evidence it may provide.
- Store it in a paper or plastic bag.
Please connect with us virtually if you have further questions. The video “Enquiry” stand in the foyer is available daily, between 8am and 4pm.
Dropping off found property at a Winnipeg Police Service Station drop box
This service is currently only available at the West District Station - 2321 Grant Avenue.
Dropping off Video Surveillance at a Winnipeg Police Service Station Drop Box
If you have surveillance video footage, it may be brought to any Winnipeg Police Service Centre and put in a drop box.
Prior to attending a station please complete the following:
- Make a Police report (online if applicable* or with an officer), ensuring the report advises that surveillance video exists.
- See if your report qualifies for online reporting.
- Make two (2) digital copies of the surveillance footage (digital media will not be returned).
Prior to putting the surveillance video in the drop box:
- Use a water soluble marker and provide the following information on each copy:
- Report number (e.g. C240001234)
- Date and time of offence
- Type of incident (e.g. Damage to vehicle)
- Date and time video was copied/burned
- Initials of the person who made the copies
- If another person is turning the video over to police, they should initial the copies as well.
Loss prevention officer or an owner of a store or business”
- The report can be made as directed above. Please bring a copy of your internal store or loss prevention report when dropping off your surveillance footage at the Winnipeg Police Service Centre.
Please connect with us virtually if you have further questions. The video “Enquiry” stand in the foyer is available daily, between 8am and 4pm.