Property Marking
Security Marking
How to deter thieves and help the police to recover your property
Property marking is a way to help protect your belongings by deterring burglars and help the Police trace and return stolen property.
Deter would-be thieves by marking your property with your postcode and house or flat number (or the first three letters of the house name). Then, if your property is stolen it will be much easier to trace, as it can be positively identified as yours.
If you move, just place an "X" at the end of your old postcode and mark your property again with your new postcode, as described above.
Worth taking? Then it's worth marking!
Take a good look around every room in your home as well as your garage or shed. Consider all the things you would be sorry to lose or find hard to replace - then MARK THEM.
Anything useful or attractive is re-saleable. For instance, all your electrical and mechanical goods, household appliances, furniture, pictures, ornaments, antiques and silver, in fact anything can be a target to thieves.
Ways to Mark
Property marking is a quick, easy Do-It-Yourself job, and it costs so little. For an outlay of only a few pounds and an hour or so of your time, you could be saving yourself a great deal of money, inconvenience and personal anguish.
There are three ways to mark:
· Permanent Marking - for more heavy duty goods like power or garden tools. Engraving and punching identifies your property for good. Kits for the job can be bought from DIY shops and ironmongers or you could improvise by scratching your postcode and house number on but be extra careful.
· Invisible Marking - for property that would be damaged or devalued by engraving or punching. Ultra-violet (UV) markers are invisible to the naked eye but the police can check recovered property for UV marking with a UV lamp. It's important to remember that UV marking fades over time and will need to be renewed every so often.
· Forensic Marking - for all valuable items. A colourless liquid solution can be applied to your valuable items, including electrical items and even vehicles. Kits have a chemical 'code' in the liquid which is unique to your items. The solution glows under UV light. applied to valuables in the home. If items are stolen in the future it enables us to identify the owners of the property and may even assist with convicting criminals.
The Community Safety Team are offering free UV marking pens to Chiltern residents (one per household, Chiltern residents only).
We can also pass your details on to a Neighbourhood Watch Coordinator who sells forensic marking kits at the reduced rate of £23 (SelectaDNA) or £24 (Smartwater). For further information about the companies and products please visit their websites. We do not specifically endorse any of these products. In our view, they are all equally effective.
Do you drive a van for business with tools inside that need marking? Ask us about our free tool-marking service where we can mark your tools with a marker pen and spray over with a lacquer to make it permanent.
For a free UV pen or to request a forensic marking kit or tool marking please contact us, making sure you provide your name, address and telephone number.
After Marking
Once you have marked your property it is best to record the details on an inventory form. Take photographs of your valuables for insurance purposes.
Burglars Hate Marked Property
It pays to show you are "Property Marked". Stickers placed anywhere a burglar might force an entry provide a very effective deterrent, and are available free from the Community Safety Team.
