Alternative to smartwater? (home security)

[jitters]

Hi all.

I had a community police officer knock on my door earlier distributing UV pens and info packs, as a house further down my road had been burgled. Whilst the idea of marking my property makes sense, a UV pen seems a little dated and they always leave a visible residue which can be seen. [edit- obviously!]

I'd heard about smartwater and have been on their website and it looks like a good product. In addition to easy application (in the nook and crannies of a device) and no visible residue it's main plus point is that it has a unique "DNA" which is linked to you and your property, details of which are held on a database which the police regularly access. Great! Although, there is a £60 annual fee for membership which you need to keep or your details are deleted from the database rendering the whole system useless. Not so great!

So, onto my original question and forum topic. Are there any (cheaper) alternatives similar to the smartwater system?

Also, the info pack had details of an online database to store product serial codes/IMEI numbers etc which is also used by the police - which again seems to be a great idea and is FREE. Details at immobilise.com

Thanks for looking.

[MarkP80]

What about this? I think the alphadot system can be used on household items as well as vehicles.

MarkP

[jitters]

Originally Posted by MarkP80

What about this? I think the alphadot system can be used on household items as well as vehicles.

MarkP

These look like a good alternative, although the application doesn't look all that 'smart' (i.e makes a mess of the product its applied to). Have you used them before?

PS - Love the cinema and bar - very jealous now.

[MarkP80]

These look like a good alternative, although the application doesn't look all that 'smart' (i.e makes a mess of the product its applied to). Have you used them before?

- I had this system applied by the dealer to a new motorbike I bought. From memory it comes in a nail varnish style bottle, they gave me what was left over. It doesn't make a mess, you just apply a small blob in discreet positions. This will contain the dots themselves. I didn't even know where it was applied on my bike, but it was on all the major (expensive) components and body panels. For expensive items in your home you would do the same thing, just spots here and there, but it doesn't need to be obvious, in fact you don't want it to be.

PS - Love the cinema and bar

- thanks!

Cheers,
MarkP