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Long Island Town Giving Residents DNA Tool To Fight Crime

HUNTINGTON STATION, N.Y. (CBSNewYork) -- The Town of Huntington on Long Island is using science to fight crime.

As CBS2's Tracee Carrasco reported, a company will use DNA from plants to track down jewelry and other valuables stolen in home burglaries.

"I'm excited that Huntington will be one of the first in the nation to trial this technology," said Suffolk County Legislator Dr. William Spencer (D-Huntington).

The Town of Huntington is providing 500 residents with a vial containing a plant-based product that can be used to leave an invisible print on valuables. The product includes DNA extracted from an assortment of common plants in homes and yards.

If those items are stolen and recovered or pawned, an ultraviolet light can be used to reveal the mark which would then be traced to the owners so the items can be returned, WCBS 880's Sophia Hall reports.

Long Island Town Providing Residents With New Tool To Fight Crime

The program that makes it all possible is called DNANET. In Huntington Station on Friday, state lawmakers and police joined the head of the local startup tech company that created the DNA Net kit.

"Application is easy," said Jim Hayward of Applied DNA Sciences. "Just swab the DNA onto an item, creating a marking just smaller than a dime."

Hayward demonstrated how easy it is for police officers to shine the UV light onto valuables afterward. The plant DNA shines brightly, and can even be sent by a computer to a lab to match it to stolen items listed on the company's database.

"An infinitesimal amount of each unique mark can identify an item belonging to your or to your family," Hayward said.

The plant-based substance can be used on anything valuable.

"We take plant DNA, very natural, clean DNA and we make a unique mark for anybody in the world and we can basically can make one for every person on earth if we had to," said Michael Nizick of Applied DNA Sciences. "It is invisible, it doesn't mar or scar the item. You can put it on jewelry, you can put it on plastic, you can put it on electronics. Anything that you consider valuable, you could put it on."

The mark lasts 350 years.

The pilot program will begin with selected burglary-prone neighborhoods in Huntington Station. Police said it will help them track stolen items that wind up in pawn shops that actually belong to crime victims.

Berley Germain of Springfield Gardens, Queens said such a product would have been useful to her when her mother's jewelry was stolen.

"We definitely went to the police; we went through, you know, to pawn shops to see if anything was found or anything -- but nothing," she said.

Germain said she would sign up for DNANET if the program becomes available citywide.

For now, the company behind the DNA plant technology will try to sign up 500 homes in Huntington Station, and if all goes well, the program will be expanded.

It is hoped that the pilot program using plant DNA in Huntington Station will be up and running by this summer.

Individuals can also buy the kit online.

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