Better accounting of your valuables

One way to reduce and deter theft is through better accounting of valuable items, such as keys, laptops or bicycles.

A university in the United States has placed RFID tags on master sets of keys. Readers mounted over key boxes are used to alert a security guard when keys are removed or added to the box. And museums around the world tag valuable artefacts with RFID. Companies, organisations and even individuals use similar systems to find out if valuable property is being removed from their premises or homes.

Even bicycles could be RFID tagged to provide a simple and cost-effective way of returning them to their owners once they have been located by police. Police, under certain conditions, could use an RFID reader to find out the serial number and the Electronic Product Code (EPC) of the bike. The number would be linked to a secure database of information on bike owners. The system could send an automated e-mail to the bike owner, who would then respond by collecting the bicycle.