Been thinking of getting smartwater to mark the usual things in the house. Just wondered if anyone has any comments/experiences good/bad with it? Seems pretty neat to me - but not cheap.
- posted
14 years ago
Been thinking of getting smartwater to mark the usual things in the house. Just wondered if anyone has any comments/experiences good/bad with it? Seems pretty neat to me - but not cheap.
Our dear (as in _very_ dear) council (Harrow LB) is planning on sending all it's residents a smartwater kit. Presumably so they can identify which Harrow residents are thieving from the other Harrow residents.
Googling 'harrow smartwater' shows a measure of pleasure of the companies and organisations involved in the deal. Unfortunately it will probably fall apart when they run out of cells to hold prisoners caught ...
What's wrong with postcoding? Doesn't need the whizzy technology (or the costs) but enables anyone (eg the punter at the car boot sale) to tell it's stolen goods. Neighbourhood Watch used to supply window stickers saying "Our property is postcoded" which I reckon is as good as a second lock on the door.
Douglas de Lacey
Postcoding and all similar ideas have a problem when second-hand goods are traded or people move houses. Either the mark is easy to remove (with obvious consequences) or it makes any potential purchaser wary.
The Mrs works in a care home and I guess unsurprisingly it seems to reflect the std range of human nature, like kleptomaniacs, escapees, schizophrenics and the like (and this is not the Alzheimer wing).
A new resident (80+ years old) even worked out how to release 'both' handles on the window *and* the movement restriction catches *and* climb out! The thing is, she doesn't know why she needs to do this but does anyway. Luckily she just goes straight round to the front door and comes back in. ;-)
I'll get the Mrs to check she not coming back with valuables she didn't go out with!
(Wouldn't that be a nice alibi though).
Cheers, T i m
Good. The more people buying from Cash Convertors who are worried about handling stolen property, the better.
I'm not in the habit of selling my kit, I am concerned about thieving scrotes.
For years my kit was marked with my _parent's_ postcode. I kept moving house, they were there for 25 years.
I often use my National Insurance number for such purposes as it's unique to me (or jolly well should be) and of a standard easily- recognisable format.
Owain
The advantage of postcode over that is that the owner is easily traceable by anyone.
As far as second-hand is concerned, there is no problem (though it took me a long search to fnd the canonical procedure: the police didn't know!): you check that the code corresponds to the vendor, then you add X either side, and put your own on. If you find an article marked XCB1
1AA-9X CB24 7AB-4 you can check (a) that it's been nicked from No 4, CB24 7AB and also (if you're paranoid) that they legally acquired it from No 9, CB1 1AA.I have only once had a bike nicked in Cambridge: borrowed my daughter's when mine broke but forgot to borrow her keys. I reported it to the police within 2 hours of the theft, and the answer was "Yes, Sir, we have it here, would you care to collect it?" A keen-eyed PC had noticed a well-known lad with a nice bike, and I gather the conversation went something like: "Hello, young man, is that your bike?" "Yeah" "I see it says it's postcoded. Remind me of your address?"
"You'd better come along o' me" No need even to call up the station to check whether they have a list of NI numbers, Smartwater details or Immobilise registrations.
Douglas de Lacey
If you just want it as a deterrant, it wouldn't be too hard to knock up one of their "This house is protected by Smartwater" window stickers. Get the logo from their website, play around with some image software, and print on a transparency sheet.
But what if Smartwater send the boys round to check that you really have purchased their product? Would they do you for theft? How's that for irony...
-- Halmyre
I've always thought it was just an idea designed to deter ignorant thieves. Since the average chav has no idea what Smartwater might be, it would work.
Istn't it a shopping centre in Essex?
Owain
PCSO (the pretend plastic police) were touting it 'for free' last year in some 'beat the criminals' initiative.
Rather than smartwater they'd be better off beating them with a big stick/iron bar and branding them with S C U M on the forehead.
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