Irons making a mark in the fight against crime

Police have bought 30 soldering irons for engraving possessions to stop thieves from stealing them and selling them on.

The irons were bought for the Kawerau community with the help of donations from the public, with sizeable amounts donated by local New World owner Greg Dyson, mayor Malcolm Campbell and Ministry for Social Development's social sector manager Kevan McConnell.

Anyone from the Kawerau area can go to the police station to have their televisions, gaming consoles, laptops and other valuables engraved free of charge.

Irons would also be distributed to each Neighbourhood Support home, so every person in Kawerau would have access to the service.

Property would be engraved with the person's name and driver licence number - a number that would stay the same throughout a person's life, unlike a phone number which may change.

Senior Sergeant Mark van der Kley hoped the engraving of valuable items would make them less attractive to thieves as they could be traced back to the original owner.

"People can take photos of their things, record the serial numbers or have alarms but this is another layer of protection," Mr van der Kley said.

"If property is permanently engraved, thieves won't be able to unload it. Drug dealers won't take anything traceable."

Senior Constable Stuart Turnbull, officer in charge of burglary and theft, said Operation Engrave started three months ago when a man was arrested after his car was found to have several laptops.

"One of the laptops had a phone number branded into it, which we rung.

"The laptop belonged to Ruatoki School which had recently had five laptops stolen," Mr Turnbull said.

"We were able to charge the offender.

"If it didn't have a phone number on it, the laptops wouldn't have been able to be proven stolen."

Mr Turnbull said they came across laptop computers all the time with search warrants but were not often able to prove whether they were stolen as the serial numbers were not recorded.

He said police were also hoping the campaign would help make items less valuable to thieves, thereby preventing the theft in the first place.

"Even if an offender scratches the engraving off, it leaves a mark, making it obvious it has been stolen," Mr Turnbull said.

Tuwharetoa Hauora run an after-school programme in an office across the road from the Kawerau police station, and Chris Marjoribanks said they had all their computers and equipment engraved last week.

"We wanted to limit people's ability to on-sell property for cash or drugs," Mr Marjoribanks said.