For people who had their bike stolen or held on to their laptop for dear life in fear that it will be stolen, help is on the way. The University Bookstore at Cal State Long Beach will soon be selling a product called DataDots that will allow students to mark their property so that if it is lost, it can be traced back to the rightful owner.
The DataDot kit holds about 400 tiny dots that can be placed on the surface of the item with the tip of a cotton swab. According to Ken Walton of MicroID Technologies, the larger the asset, the more dots should be applied.
A laptop, for instance, should have about 40 to 50 dots placed on it. These dots are marked with an alpha-numeric code that law enforcement has been trained to look up in a national database. The code enables the police to locate the proper owner of the missing item.
When a customer purchases this item, he or she is given a program
in which he or she can enter information and keep an inventory on the items marked.
Kimberly Wheeler, a sophomore, had her class ring stolen from her in the dorms.
“I took it off in the bathroom,” Wheeler said. “And when I came back, it was gone.”
Wheeler says she checked in the lost and found and reported it missing, but it has yet to be recovered. With the new DataDot technology, she might have been able to place one or two dots on the back of the ring and report it to the police. If found, the ring could then be positively identified as hers and returned.
The kit comes with a warning adhesive that tells thieves the item is protected by DataDots, and Walton said that he believes the spread of this technology will increase awareness and may provoke thieves to move on and to not steal the items that have DataDots. Because these dots are nearly invisible and the adhesive is so strong, it would be extremely difficult for a thief to remove them, according to Walton.
“I would buy them,” said Tyler Takahashi, a”sophomore engineering student. “I am concerned for the safety of my valuables and am very paranoid about that stuff.”
Derek Smith, a freshman engineering major, said, “I’d probably buy that.’I plan on bringing my laptop to school and that would probably be good to have.”
Fullerton had excess of DataDots and CSULB bought the excess, but have not yet received them. These DataDots are not currently available at the Computer Store in the University Bookstore, but are expected to arrive soon and will be sold for $19.95 a kit.