Mcdonalds sprays Theives with their DNA

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**hotsauceman1**

We americans need to get in on this
http://www.geek.com/articles/geek-cetera/mcdonalds-starts-using-dna-spray-to-curb-theft-in-australia-20120120/

It looks like owning a McDonald’s franchise in Australia is a bit of a dangerous proposition. Reacting to a string of hold-ups at various locations, the fast-food corporation has contracted with security agency SelectaDNA to install anti-theft systems that use a DNA spray to mark criminals as they leave a store.

Both invisible and odorless, the spray is comprised of a synthetic DNA strand with 60 different chromosomes and stays on a person’s skin for two weeks, and on their clothes for up to six months. Once a person has been sprayed, authorities can use UV lighting to see if they have been hit. Since the DNA spray is unique to the location it’s deployed in, the fact that a person is “tagged” is admissible in court as evidence.

SelectaDNA was developed by a team comprised of a retired police officer and a chemist from the UK. It started out as a grease that is applied to construction equipment and supplies to help curb the theft of materials like copper and expensive machinery. With the development of the spray dispersal system, the duo came up with a way to help catch fleeing criminals. SelectaDNA claims that stores in the UK that have installed the theft deterrent system along with its warning signage have seen an 85% drop in crimes, a decrease of that size can’t be ignored.

This is good news for the McDonald’s outlet at Merrylands in Sydney. The restaurant was held up by masked gunmen twice in one week, both times getting away with large sums of cash. The location is one of seven test sites in Australia, and if the system performs well it will be placed in all 780 McDonald’s stores across the country.

**Asherian Command**

I don't know about you but this is kinda ironic. The place that the Brits sent criminals to die have developed ways to catch other criminals....

**Yak9UT**

Asherian Command wrote:I don't know about you but this is kinda ironic. The place that the Brits sent criminals to die have developed ways to catch other criminals....

Ha ha ha too right

**Medium of Death**

We sent the British to go die in Britain?

This stuff is from the UK.

So, essentially, the door rubs one out on you if you have been bad?

Fantastic!

**hotsauceman1**

Asherian Command wrote:I don't know about you but this is kinda ironic. The place that the Brits sent criminals to die have developed ways to catch other criminals....

The reason Austraila became a prison is because Britain didn't need wardens. The wildlife did it for them.

**Avatar 720**

Medium of Death wrote:So, essentially, the door rubs one out on you if you have been bad?

Fantastic!

Not if, for whatever reason, you're entering McDonalds carrying a rather fetching door of your own, and the McDonalds doors can't control their urges.

**DeathReaper**

What exactly prevents the thieves from covering all their skin with fabric, donning safety goggles, and then burning the clothes/goggles after they leave?

**remilia_scarlet**

welcome to the future of crime fighting, yo!

**Nerivant**

DeathReaper wrote:What exactly prevents the thieves from covering all their skin with fabric, donning safety goggles, and then burning the clothes/goggles after they leave?

The intelligence level of anyone who would rob a McDonalds.

**dogma**

I have been beaten to the punch.

**Piston Honda**

I foresee many criminals wearing one of these. Possibly made of latex.

**DickBandit**

Rob McDonalds, get jizzed on.

**Lordhat**

Of course this requires the police to actually find the persons responsible, now if it just dyed them say, neon green, for the two weeks/ six months as well, then it's a great tool instead of just another ok one.

**Snrub**

DickBandit wrote:Rob McDonalds, get jizzed on.

Your name makes your comment all the more funny.

**Piston Honda**

Snrub wrote:
DickBandit wrote:Rob McDonalds, get jizzed on.
Your name makes your comment all the more funny.

Bwhahahahahahahahahahaha

It's true!

**Ouze**

I suspect there is another sort of DNA application frequently used even now in ahh,you know where this is going. Skeet skeet.

**AustonT**

Piston Honda wrote:I foresee many criminals wearing one of these. Possibly made of latex.

That cop totally drove him to a dark corner and raped him.

**Avatar 720**

I wouldn't mind, she looks like she knows her way around a decent nightstick.

Assuming it isn't a man, I can't tell in that photo, it's too dark.

**Samus_aran115**

Why not just spray them with green paint or something that's equally traceable? This seems like a complicated solution that doesn't really have much use in anything but convicting the criminal. It doesn't help you identify them, say, on a busy main street, or in a supermarket.

Very cool though!

**Tyyr**

That cop totally drove him to a dark corner and raped him.

Let's see, trip to jail or do her. Not seeing this as a difficult decision.

**Orlanth**

Nerivant wrote:
DeathReaper wrote:What exactly prevents the thieves from covering all their skin with fabric, donning safety goggles, and then burning the clothes/goggles after they leave?

The intelligence level of anyone who would rob a McDonalds.

I wouldn't put it past many McDonalds customers to trying to take a grab from the till at a McDonald's if the person at the till is slow or distracted. They have long hours fairly heavy cash takings, the wrong customers and the wrong staff. I can see this being a problem frankly.

**SlaveToDorkness**

Samus_aran115 wrote:Why not just spray them with green paint or something that's equally traceable? This seems like a complicated solution that doesn't really have much use in anything but convicting the criminal. It doesn't help you identify them, say, on a busy main street, or in a supermarket.

Very cool though!

There is a benefit to the criminal not knowing they have been tagged. Think of it as a silent alarm that IDs people weeks later.

It's also harder to come up with an alibi for having a targeted DNA strand on you as opposed to readily available green paint.

Definitely harder for someone in the IQ range of a thug robbing McDs.

**obsidianaura**

off topic i know but there's this bit in a bill bryson book where he talks about the early colonization of australia.

Because a lot of people were just sent there as they weren't wanted in the UK not many of them knew what they were doing. So all the cattle they took with them escaped in the early days.

Many years later when they started exploring the country, just over some dangerous hills they found millions of cows that had decended from the escaped ones.

I dont know if it's true but it makes me smile

**Kilkrazy**

I like the image of Ronald McDonald spraying someone with his DNA special sauce.

**Philld77**

Kilkrazy wrote:I like the image of Ronald McDonald spraying someone with his DNA special sauce.

I don't wanna know what's in the "Milkshakes" now

**Sturmtruppen**

Have any considerations been taken in the matter of mutants? Spraying artificial DNA in McDonalds is a surefire way to start a zombie apocalypse!

**dogma**

Orlanth wrote:
I wouldn't put it past many McDonalds customers to trying to take a grab from the till at a McDonald's if the person at the till is slow or distracted. They have long hours fairly heavy cash takings, the wrong customers and the wrong staff. I can see this being a problem frankly.

Maybe certain McDonalds.

In the states eating at McDonalds is not necessarily a sign of "low breeding" so to speak.

My boss, who is in his 50's and has a high 6 figure salary, eats at McDonalds 3-4 times a week.

And then, you know, this:

**Howard A Treesong**

I would have thought McDonalds were more worried about their own staff stealing from the till, seems common enough. My wife has worked places like shops and cinemas where the CCTV was pointed at the till, not at the customers, because that's where the risk is. People coming in off the street and robbing the place are apparently less common than employees stealing from the till.

**Inquisitor Lord Bane**

The Mcdonalds near my parents house was robbed at gunpoint last year. I think there should be a button that once hit, the Ronald Mcdonald statue comes to life and mounts the offender before spraying DNA. Shame is a powerful tool

**dogma**

Inquisitor Lord Bane wrote:The Mcdonalds near my parents house was robbed at gunpoint last year.

This is most likely the reason the spray is not color based. Guy gets turned green, turns around and decides that he isn't all that concerned about the lives of employees: PR nightmare.