West Midlands Police have launched a problem page-style ad campaign to promote a new online service to help reunite people with their lost and stolen property.

The service allows people to register the serial numbers of their valuables, such as mobile phones, laptop computers, iPods and bikes.

If the item is stolen or lost and later recovered by police, officers said they had a greater chance of being able to track down the original owners.

The registermythings.co.uk website links to free national property database www.immobilise.com which is checked daily against lists of stolen property.

Every year West Midlands Police auction off for charity thousands of pounds worth of lost property and valuables recovered from thieves after failing to identify the rightful owners.

But by registering property, it would increase the chances of having it retrieved, police said.