Chatham-Kent police are taking steps to return more stolen property to their rightful owners.
Consumers can use the TRACE Pen to mark any valuable items with a microscopic pin number. If the item is stolen and recovered, police can use a blacklight and special camera to find the pin number. From there, they can go through TRACE's database to match the number to the owner, and return the item successfully.
TRACE's Tom Pate says each pen is good for 50 uses, and there's no concern about the mark wearing out over time. "It will be on there forever. It's a special adhesive, very strong. It can be ground off but anything that would remove it would deface the surface that it's on."
CK police say returning stolen property will address storage issues they're facing. They'll now be working to get local Home Hardware's to carry the pens for sale. The CKPS will purchase 1,700 blacklights and zoomable cameras for their scene of crime and forensics officers.
A look at the TRACE pen in-box (Photo by Jake Kislinsky).
