The loaded gun, badge and ammunition taken from a car at a popular East Bay shoreline park belonged to the UC Berkeley police chief, authorities said Monday.

Margo Bennett, head of the campus police force, lost her gun, police badge, ammunition, department-issued laptop, iPad, cell phone and diamond ring when her unmarked Ford Escape was broken into while it was parked near the Mudpuppy’s dog grooming business at Point Isabel Regional Shoreline in Richmond, officials said.

Bennett had gone for a jog before work Friday morning and returned about 8:15 a.m. to find her left rear window smashed, according to university officials and Carolyn Jones, spokeswoman for the East Bay Regional Park District, which manages the shoreline.

Bennett joined the UC Berkeley Police Department as a captain in 2002 and was named chief two years ago.

Bennett has been a crime victim before. Her then-husband, an FBI agent whom she had turned in to the agency for trying to defraud it of more than $17,000, tried to kill her in 1996 — and later kidnapped her minister and placed explosives around his waist in hopes of framing her for the crime, officials said. He was convicted of several charges and sentenced to 23 years in prison.

“I’ve been a victim and know what being a victim is like,” Bennett told The Chronicle in 2013. “And I have used that information to strengthen who I am, and I bring it into everything I do.”

Authorities are doing everything they can to find Bennett’s property. After the theft was reported, park police canvassed the area but turned up no sign of the missing items or the thief, authorities said.

“Car break-ins are not uncommon at any of the shoreline parks’ parking lots,” primarily because they are located near freeways and allow easy access for burglars, Jones said.

Visitors to the parks should try not to keep items of value inside their cars, Jones said.

“If you insist on bringing valuables to the parks, keep them in the trunk, and make sure you put them in the trunk before you get to the park,” as people might be casing parking lots, Jones said.

In July, a gun stolen from the car of a federal Bureau of Land Management agent was allegedly used to shoot and kill Kathryn Steinle on Pier 14 in San Francisco.

Henry K. Lee is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. E-mail: hlee@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @henryklee