AUSTRALIA MARKING AGENTS HELP TRACK STOLEN COMPUTERS : "Hi-tech glue really sticks it to the thieves

Nicole Cox

INVISIBLE to the naked eye, a hi-tech glue has become South Australia's latest weapon in the fight against household theft.

Neighbourhood Watch SA will next month start offering sophisticated micro- dot products to members in an effort to more easily trace stolen property.

And SA Police has ordered special microscopes and ultraviolet lights for every police station so officers are able to track items marked with the product.

The dots, each the size of a pinhead, are contained in the glue which, once applied, glows under ultraviolet light to reveal a code.

The code is then traced back to police records to identify the owner and alert them their stolen property has been recovered.

In SA, drivers' licence numbers are used as the identifying code, prefixed with the letter ''S'' indicating the state of origin.

Neighbourhood Watch SA state president Al Thomson said microdots could lead to the speedier recovery of stolen household goods such as televisions, computers, DVD players and tools, which were regularly targeted by thieves.

''This is significant in that people are not keen on engraving some of the stuff that is readily stolen,'' Mr Thomson said.

''(With microdots) the property becomes very traceable and very identifiable and it has not got the tackiness of engraving.''

Chief Inspector William Prior, officer-in-charge of community programs, said there was great value in the technology.

''Microdot technology has enabled police, through the WatchSA programs, to encourage people to mark their property with an invisible, unique code,'' Chief Inspector Prior said.

''SAPOL is in the process of supplying each (police station) property section with an ultra-violet light and microscope to read the micro-dots."