Electric engraving tools for marking valuables are available from the Skinker-DeBaliviere Community Council, Inc., 6008 Kingsbury, and from the Police-Community Relations Office, 5884 Easton. Tools can be borrowed for three days, after a small deposit which is refunded when the tool is returned.
Residents are urged to etch their driver’s license numbers on all valuables and to put the stickers available with the tools on their windows so that wouldbe thieves know that items stolen from the home will be hard to dispose of. Pawnshops have been warned not to accept etched goods unless the person who brings in the items can show a driver’s license with a matching number.
The tool itself is no more difficult to use than any other writing instrument and will mark metal, wood, glass etc. In areas all over the country where the Operation Ident program has been used on a wide scale, burglaries have diminished in number by as much as 50% to 60%. Since break-in burglary of empty residences is the major offense in this neighborhood, the use of the etching tool should be a most useful preventive measure.
For further information and to reserve an engraver for your use, telephone Vo. 2-5122.
Originally published in The Paper, December 1972.
Read this article in the original newspaper issue.
Original source: SD_Times1972_12.pdf, printed page(s) 4.
