Big ups to the folks who created stolencamerafinder.com (looks like one person associated with it is named "Matt"), who gave the author a critical tool.
That tool is super convenient. The serial number, as well as the model number, lens info, etc are all stored in the image metadata. Any metadata reader can get the info for you, you can even view it in Lightroom and sort photos by the camera or lens used.
Yes, it's a great site when it works. My personal camera isn't found despite uploading many images online w/ EXIF data.
I recently (two weeks) had my camera bag stolen from my apartment in Berkeley, with a few other things around $9k total and quite a few years to accumulate it. Fortunately, insurance is helping, but the police didn't even take prints in my case. Nevertheless, I'm continually stalking ebay/Craigslist/others for serial numbers and other signs as I've kept pretty detailed notes on the gear I had.