‘Bicycle DNA’ program to help fight bicycle theft in Jacksonville Beach

Jacksonville Beach, Fla. — New technology is helping law enforcement crackdown on bicycle thefts around the country and right here in Jacksonville Beach.

It’s called Bicycle DNA.

Brandy Fredell knows what it’s like to have something stolen.

“It was about four months ago. My daughter’s bicycle got stolen right when I moved to the condo. We had a surfboard stolen,” Fredall said.

She’s not taking any chances this time around. So much so, she braved the rain Saturday morning to register two bikes in the Bicycle DNA program at the Jacksonville Beach Police Department.

“It’s putting on a forensic application to people’s bicycles that allows law enforcement around the world to be able to identify property,” Protech DNA President Shawn Andreas said.

Jacksonville Beach Police said they’ve received 102 reports of bikes stolen between January and October of this year.

“You typically see a higher spike of bicycle theft in a beach community and that’s what’s happening here in Jax beach,” Andreas said.

All you do is register for free on the Protech DNA app and put a special sticker on your bike.

However, the special tech isn’t something you can plainly see.

The sticker goes on the bicycle but embedded in the adhesive of the sticker are several of these little tiny microscopic dots,” Andreas said.

Those tiny dots are uniquely serialized to each owner. Even if a thief takes off your sticker, the adhesive still remains.

When you register your bicycle you can also get a free tube of adhesive which contains the microdots that help identify your property.

Your registration is not only entered into a national database but it can also be tracked down to local pawn shops.

To learn more, click here.

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