I reviewed a number of DNA mark kits and have described my findings here. Since this is not an advertisement, I have excluded trade names and trademarks.
Prices range from £10.00 to around £50.00 and it really is a case of ‘you get what you pay for’.
The DNA Marking Kit which comes in at £9.99 is a cheap looking marker pen, the kind you buy for your kids as a disposable. The real deterrent is the sticker that warns a would-be thief that the property is DNA-tagged.
The pen does not have a nib as such; the occupied end resembles the fiber wadding where the felt-tip ink would be, and carries a clear medium that transfers its DNA to the property to be marked.
The ‘DNA mark’ is invisible. How would the Police find an almost invisible mark? you could ask. The manufacturers suggest; “The client tells the officer to get a 10 or 15X magnifying glass and a strong flashlight and shine the light at a 45 degree angle where the few microns of depth of the mark can be seen.”
There are some serious flaws, such as police timing and logistics. If the police discover several DVD players in the home of a known thief, they will most likely scan it with a black lamp for UV property marks, but his invisible DNA will not show up. It is likely that he will not see his property returned.
However, there could be a series of happy coincidences, such as you telling the local policeman in your village that you have been robbed and all your property has your DNA on it, he stops someone with property that he remembers belongs to you and uses his 10 or a 15X magnifying glass and a strong flashlight and shine the light at a 45 degree angle, see your secret mark! Good old-fashioned British Bobby in his prime. Sadly Dixon of Dock Green is long gone.
There are cost implications in recovering the DNA and turning it into evidence, the Forensic Science Laboratory carries this out, and the police face the bill (pardon the pun).
They are likely to opt for traditional property repossession techniques, such as showing the thief that “he’s a fair cop” and asking him to physically identify your property with serial numbers, photos, or even receipts.
The £9.99 kit is available through a network of people who have paid £10 for a ‘licence’ to sell the DNA-tagging kits locally. Resellers have no security controls and can buy your business opportunity through Internet auction sites and other advertisements. £10 gets them into the security business!
A product recognized by the police is Smart Water Tracer, designed for the protection of household and household assets, as well as business assets. The unique forensic fingerprint is virtually invisible to the human eye. However, it does fluoresce under the ultraviolet light that police use as standard, and is virtually impossible to remove completely.
The cost is around £45.00 and claims to reduce the risk of theft by up to 83%. Police support SmartWater as it has enabled them to obtain a 100% conviction rate in court. The kit also includes warning labels to deter burglars and it only takes 20 minutes to mark property on a typical home.
The options are to spend £10 on the unknown or £45 on a commercially recognized property marking kit.
Back to DNA Labeling Kit. For around £50 there is another DNA property marking kit, this one is UK Secured By Design accredited, not easy to come by and very important. This also comes with warning stickers, the unique DNA resides in a special glue pot to apply to your valuables of property. Once this glue is applied, removal of the entire DNA mark from an item is nearly impossible. It is invisible to humans and can only be located with an ultraviolet lamp, and DNA remnants will easily remain in cracks and uneven surfaces.
The added benefit is that the DNA code along with customer details are held in a secure LPCB (Loss Prevention Certification Board) approved database and allows recovered property to be traced back to the owner after analysis. Forensic testing will detect even a small glue molecule and can be used to determine who the item really belongs to.
There is a DNA printing kit that retails for around £40 with a technically advanced, proprietary UV product that is saturated with selected sequences of DNA strands embedded in the security ink. By simply placing your fingerprint on the items you wish to protect and/or writing your code or personal number on them with the DNA UV Security Writing Pen, you will have peace of mind knowing that if the items are lost or stolen, they will later be recovered. , can be scanned by the UV DNA detector to illuminate their invisible markings and prove ownership.
This DNA printing kit has more items than the others mentioned, the kit includes…
DNA UV Security Ink Pad for marking hundreds of objects with your personal fingerprint, DNA UV Security Writing Pen, designed to invisibly write your personal information that can identify you as the owner, UV DNA Detector with Pen for illuminate invisible marks. Inventory ledger to record the location and type of invisible markings placed on your property. And tamper-evident labels to alert police that recovered items are tagged with DNA UV security marks.
The DNA was used to protect all licensed merchandise for the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney, Australia, the work of famous artists such as Joe Barbara (The Flintstone’s) and Thomas Kincaid and owned by a major film studio. It was also used to protect items from athletes like Mohammad Ali and Mark McGuire’s famous 70th home run.
Now you can take advantage of this cutting-edge technology to protect your property with indisputable identification.