Asset Security Marking

I'm considering 'Asset Security Marking' kits for machinery and equipment which may as well include what's in the workshop.

Up 'til now it's been my habit to engrave my driving licence number on portable machinery as a UI that any good police officer will recognise for what it is and then have a ready means of finding me.

This is no longer practical; I'd happily pay for a good marking system and entry to a database, I'd like to know:

1) Is there an industry 'leader'? (they all claim to be).

2) Do any brands or 'species' of marking really provide a deterrent to theft in the first place?

3) What is the liklihood of the database still being active in twenty years time?

Edited By DiogenesII on 23/04/2023 08:55:19

https://www.selectadna.co.uk/?gclid=CjwKCAjwrpOiBhBVEiwA_473dCTCUx_TV-NzeuWa6UJJT9Zi9LhH0J7nt2ZNnp4CRg5Ua7fk8uP8cRoCEfoQAvD_BwE

**LINK**

Hi DiogeneseII,

"SmartWater" works quite well, although I think it's called something different now. Or maybe just administered by someone else.

Item 3) might be your biggest issue though.

I made myself a punch, using my Initials, reverse engraved on the engraving machine.when used it shows correctly from a male punch. i use this to punch detail on parts that can be punched without damage. for example a bycycle or a saw bench table and expensive tooling. otherwise I scribe the same with a diamond pen.

Why not just etch your postcode somewhere out of the way on the items? In the very unlikely event stolen goods are retrieved its easy enough for the police to return them to you (If they aren't to busy* )

* (Daily Mail 7 April 2023) Moment six police officers raid a pub and seize 15 g******g dolls after customer made hate crime complaint.

Pictures of items are probbly best, showing unique markings

Keep them in a computer file

It can depend on how busy they are with stolen stuff.

Read an interesting case, car stolen, turns up half a mile away with a new ID and the same unique dents/scratches when the owner ran into it.

Took quite a while to get sorted out even though it was just up the road.

John and Bosun, thanks, looking into both those; Smartwater is now included in the DeterTech SmartTrace system.

Mike and Clive, thanks; I have formerly stamped / engraved items but I'm now housing all my 'stuff' with that of the farm where I work, the sheer quantity and diversity of items renders this impractical; Also rural crime here has become so 'practiced' that simple visible markings no longer seem to deter thieves.

Ady - Yes. I've been creating the world's most boring photo album since last Thursday.

And pictures keep the all important insurers happy

I like the driver no idea at least the database isn't likely to disappear any time soon

I stamp or etch my National Insurance number on anything valuable, the number stays with you until you die and the woodentops should be able to recognise it.

Stamping your postcode on your items is a good way of marking your tools. When my daughter was about twelve she cycled to the local ASDA store which was only a couple of streets away and chained her bike up outside, when she came out she forgot that she had come by bike and left it chained up outside ASDA. Three days later we got a call from the local police saying did we know there was a bike with our postcode stamped on it chained up outside ASDA and had been there a while.Apparently the security guy at ASDA had noticed it and told the police who had then tracked us down from the postcode stamped on the bike. So postcode stamping does work. Dave W

House No. + postcode saves to police having to call around.
I often use my amateur radio callsign. Technically recognised worldwide but not sure if the local police would know what it was.

Edited By Robert Atkinson 2 on 23/04/2023 18:36:04

Hi Samsaranda,

How did the Police know to contact you? Postcodes normally cover multiple properties.

p

Those multiple properties will all be on the same street or road. One’s full post code is the street and house number - unless one perhaps live on a farm, well away from other post codes, for instance.

Postcodes are ok until you move, whenever you move you have to re mark everything.

Believe it or not, I'm employed by Smartwater (now part of Detertech), and I'm actually the bloke who runs the automatic process that manufactures the forensic coded solution for domestic use. How's that for a co-incidence?

It's chief function is as a deterrent. The customer uses the supplied SmartTrace solution (which contains a unique combination of metallic elements in a fluorescent polymer suspension) to mark their belongings with a small dab in a grease free area.  Note there's no fragile synthetic 'DNA' in its formula - it's all based on metallic chemistry, sourced from around the globe.

Included in the kit are a variety of stickers (door, window and anti-tamper) that serve as the initial warning to any would-be thief that the property is marked. The idea is to persuade chummy to bugger off, and is known to be effective.

If an item is stolen/recovered, the police are equipped to shine an ultra violet light on the item, and the applied Smartwater will glow bright yellow. At this point the suspected thief will probably be advised by his legal brief to drop any defence and to confess.

If necessary, a tiny sample can be taken from the Smartwater dab, and our own forensic laboratory will determine the actual registered owner of the item.

Detertech

Tim (whose workshop and tools are daubed with SmartWater......)

Edited By Tim Hooper on 23/04/2023 21:25:14

Because you reported the theft to the police so when the item is found in a location that does not match they look it up and find the string of burglaries reported for your area with lists of items. The half ton lathe gone from the area is probably unique to you.

It has to be said that this forum rarely fails to turn up the 'right' people.. ..thanks for taking the trouble to respond so positively Tim, it helps a lot and is duly noted; added to that I did a quick tour round our locality yesterday and see your product widely advertised everywhere from churches to utility assets. Go and warm the machinery up..

What did rather surprise me was that so few people seem to have first-hand experience of these products; if the reason for that was for want of need to, then long may it continue. Thanks all.

Bikes should be stamped with the postcode and house number. The pair identify the address.

10 SW1A 2AA is 10 Downing Street, London

Dave