Marking your property is one of the most simple and effective ways of protecting your possessions.
For a start, property marking puts burglars off because it let's others know that the item has been stolen, making it much more difficult to sell on. The other big advantage is that it makes tracing and returning your stolen property a lot easier for police.
The Metropolitan police say that there are two main types of property marking: the first is known as permanent marking, when you etch your property with your street number and postcode, or an approved database phone number and customer code.
Invisible marking is the other method of property marking. This is best for antiques or valuable property that would lose value if spoiled by permanent marking. Most if not all Police Forces now check stolen property with an ultra-violet lamp, so any UV mark can be located. In the past many people used UV pens as an inexpensive way of marking property, but it is important to remember that UV pen marking fades and will need to be renewed regularly. Now, there is a more sophisticated way to invisibly mark property - DNA Forensic Marking.
Although almost invisible to the naked eye, this type of marking still works as an excellent deterrent to burglars, but you must use warning labels and window stickers to let thieves know that "property in this home/business has been marked".
When it comes to deciding which items to mark, you should try and mark everything which you would not want stolen. The truth is almost anything can be a target for theft, so why not mark everything?
It's worth keeping a property list or inventory of all the valuable items you mark, especially if using an invisible marking.