Crime doesn’t pay, except when you get away with it.

A group of four unidentified suspects robbed a long island teenager early Saturday on the streets of Uniondale, police have reported. They held the teen at knifepoint and made off with his wallet and Nike sneakers. This was after they beat and kicked the victim.

As far the stolen valuables, there’s almost no chance they’ll ever be returned to the victim. With no way to identify them, they’ll almost certainly end up on the shelves of a pawn shop. Even if the suspects are caught later for a different crime, there would be no way to link them to the robbery here.

In this scenario, the criminals are almost surely going to get away with it, and the victim won’t see justice, or his possessions, ever again. But it doesn’t have to be this way.

Applied DNA Sciences’ Home Asset Marking kit could have been used to mark the teen’s wallet and sneakers, creating a forensically verifiable link between the owner and the items. If the criminals were found in possession of the items, they would almost certainly see jail time.

More importantly if police recover the items, they can ensure that they get back to their owner. The shelves of police evidence rooms are lined with items that have never been recovered because there isn’t away to tell who owns them. Don’t let that happen to you.

Learn more here.