There are some things thieves just can’t keep their hands off.

In grocery stores, it’s pills, pregnancy tests and, surprisingly often, packages of chicken tenders from the deli case.

Guns and jewelry are time-tested targets, and in the past few months, Apple iPods have started popping up more often on crime reports. That shouldn’t be a surprise, given their growing popularity and hand-held size.

“In my experience, thieves prefer to steal anything which is small, difficult to track, easy to transport and easily converted into cash,” said Sgt. Dan Ward, a Lawrence Police spokesman.

Local police don’t publish detailed statistics on what items are most stolen. But by leafing through stacks of police reports at the Judicial and Law Enforcement Center, 111 E. 11th St., it’s possible to get a sense for some of the most commonly swiped items in Lawrence.

1. License plates

They’re often taken by people who want to conceal a stolen car, can’t get a license plate or don’t want to pay for one.

“It can easily go unnoticed or undetected until a police officer actually learns through a computer check that it’s not supposed to go on that car,” said Lt. John Eickhorn of the Kansas Highway Patrol.

Richard Hernandez, 53, had the license plate stolen off his Dodge minivan twice in the past two months. But he’s not sure when or where it happened.

“We’ve just racked our brains to think, ‘When was the last time we absolutely, positively knew that it was on the car?'” he said. “You just kind of take it for granted.”

2. Car stereo equipment

Thieves often work in pairs and hit a concentrated area, such as an apartment complex parking lot, on one night. They often smash vehicles’ windows and take stereos, speakers and compact discs.

“A car is a soft target. There’s no doubt about it,” Tom Patel, owner of University Audio, 2319 La., said. But Patel said he thinks car-stereo thefts have become less common in recent years as stereo prices have gone down.

He said the best way to protect a car stereo is to remove the faceplate.

“The refrain is common: ‘I just forgot to take it off one time,'” Patel said.

3. Checks

Often, people who steal checks and forge them for cash have a history of drug problems. That was the case in 2004, when a 40-year-old Lawrence woman with a long-standing crack cocaine addiction was caught forging checks that belonged to a senior citizen who died in a house fire.

Carrie Neighbors, owner of Yellow House, 1904 Mass., said she once had an employee who stole a book of the business’ checks, wrote them out to herself, and racked up $7,000 in one week. Neighbors said she was frustrated to learn that the woman, when caught, received only probation.

4. Laptop computers

In the past year, dozens of laptops have been stolen in Lawrence. They’ve been taken from a lab on the Kansas University campus, picked up while left unattended in a hotel conference room, and grabbed during auto burglaries.

When a burglar stole a $1,000 laptop computer early this month from 22-year-old Abby Reust’s unlocked home in the 700 block of Alabama Street, the culprit left behind other valuable electronics, such as a TV and DVD player.

“I think they probably just took it because it was right there and it was something easy to take,” Reust said.

5. Bicycles

Thieves can easily cut cable locks and can break U-style locks by spraying them with Freon, then smashing them with a hammer, said Dan Hughes, owner of Sunflower Outdoor & Bike Shop, 802 Mass.

“I think the bottom line is that if you come up against a professional bike thief, they’re going to get your bike no matter what,” Hughes said. “The best you can do is to make sure you lock it up.”

Hughes said people should buy a lock that matches the kind of security they need and should avoid using the same spot each day to store the bicycle in public.

A cluster of recovered stolen bicycles and other items are kept in the evidence storage area of the Judicial and Law Enforcement Center. Bicycles are a commonly stolen item in Lawrence.

Police recommend getting a $1 city-issued bicycle license that gives officers a record of the bicycle in case it’s stolen. The licenses are available on the second floor of the Judicial & Law Enforcement Center.

6. Golf clubs

The online auction site eBay is a popular place for golfers to buy their clubs. Jim Bigger suspects it’s a popular place for thieves to sell them, too.

“How are you going to track that?” asked Biggers, owner of Eudora Riverview Golf, 2102 N. 1500 Rd. “That’s something that’s easily stolen and easily peddled.”

There have been at least six golf-club thefts in Lawrence so far this year, most of them from open garages.

7. Power tools

Dean Penny, Vice President of Penny Construction Company Inc., said disappearing tools – especially smaller hand-held tools – are a fact of life for people in his field. He said a friend in western Kansas recently put stickers on all his tools that read, “These tools tracked by GPS.”

“Of course, there was no GPS chip in it, but it scared the hell out of the guy that was going to take it,” he said.

He said a thief once loaded one of his company’s Bobcat loaders onto a trailer as an employee slept in a nearby RV.

“We had a superintendent who was in Kansas City at a track meet. They pried his tool box open and they cleaned him out,” Penny said. “They chased the guys down. The car plate was stolen, so they never did track them down.”