| You've finally done it, you left your laptop at the coffee | | | | were never reported or returned - a CD case full of |
| shop, your cell phone at the supermarket or your PDA | | | | music and a calculator. |
| on the counter at the office supply store. Maybe you | | | | If this trend takes hold and becomes popular in the |
| forgot to pick up your iPod from the ATM, where you | | | | consumer market, it will mirror a concept long used by |
| put it down to answer your cell phone during a banking | | | | corporate, government and military organizations. |
| transaction. Several new companies have launched | | | | Those large companies, educational institutions, |
| with the express purpose of helping us all find stuff we | | | | governments and the department of defense have |
| inevitably lose every day. Each are using the power of | | | | long put asset tags on property over a specified dollar |
| the web, plus toll free phone numbers and a database | | | | value. |
| of unique ID numbers assigned to each item and | | | | You can see "fixed asset tags" on items ranging from |
| registered to owners - on special "asset tags" or | | | | street light poles to heavy machinery. Those items |
| "property ID tags". | | | | have long been tagged and labeled with unique ID |
| 1,200 cell phones, 1,500 sets of keys and over 300 | | | | numbers and bar codes printed onto them to facilitate |
| PDAs and laptops are turned into the Las Vegas | | | | electronic scanning. |
| International lost and found department annually. - | | | | More recently, corporate and government entities have |
| McCarran Int'l Airport Security, July 2003 | | | | begun placing asset tags on more high value movable |
| 140,000 items are found annually on Southwest Airlines | | | | items like laptops, PDA's, scanners and cell phones |
| flights, 50,000 items at Enterprise Rent-A-Car, and 20 | | | | carried by employees in their work. This facilitates the |
| a day at some Avis Rent-A-Car locations. Despite | | | | identification and return of those "movable assets" |
| best efforts, fewer than 1% are returned. - The Wall | | | | when they are lost on the job by careless or |
| Street Journal, November 2003 | | | | distracted workers. |
| Several companies have launched to help return lost | | | | The launch of companies like StuffBak, TrackitBack, |
| property represented by web sites each company | | | | Boomerangit show that valuable electronic, digital items |
| offering to help you recover lost valuables. | | | | are being lost far more often by consumers and they |
| An Irish startup has launched based on that same | | | | are seeking ways to get their goodies back when |
| concept of marking expensive portable electronics, | | | | they misplace them. Asset tags for the masses may |
| laptops, PDA's, cell phones, MP3 players and other | | | | become popular enough to support consumer oriented |
| valuables with their asset tags (labels with unique ID | | | | companies to label consumer items. |
| numbers). That firm also has a website and toll free | | | | StuffBak has partnered with retailers like CompUSA |
| phone lines where items can be reported found. The | | | | and Sears, while BoomerangIt works product tie-ins |
| Irish company is named and has a cute, black and | | | | with Pioneer, Toshiba, Palm and Seiko Instruments, |
| white spotted puppy dog as a mascot. The concept | | | | along with nearly a dozen bicycle manufacturers - (due |
| of the dog "fetching" lost items and returning them to | | | | to their roots as a bicycle recovery company). |
| you is easy to understand. The company tag line is | | | | BoomerangIt is also working with the National Crime |
| "The Lost And Found Company" for obvious reasons. | | | | Prevention Council (Think McGruff the crime fighting |
| What is not so obvious to most is the idea that many | | | | dog and "Take a bite out of crime"). They also work |
| people are honest enough that they would actually turn | | | | with local police departments in return of stolen goods |
| in a lost valuable. Most of us assume that if we leave | | | | with the tags. TrackitBack has partnered with Staples |
| a laptop or an iPod on the bus or subway, that we'd | | | | and BestBuy stores - so all are agressively marketing |
| never see them again. But the companies cite several | | | | their offerings in the consumer marketplace. |
| experiments done in the US by 8 local television news | | | | Each offer business incentives for larger sales of ID |
| stations and one by a USA Today columnist, Edward | | | | tags exceeding 50 or more, with invitations to |
| Baig, to prove that if those valuables are labeled with | | | | companies to contact them for volume pricing. |
| special "asset tags", that people will, more times than | | | | The movement of asset tags into the consumer |
| not, call the toll free telephone numbers printed on the | | | | marketplace is an unexpected development that may |
| tags and return the expensive items. | | | | be logically extended into property insurance discounts |
| [ | | | | and other unexpected areas. Asset tags are turning |
| The television stations had a 75% success rate in | | | | up on consumer goods through national retailers and |
| getting their "lost" items reported and turned in, while | | | | product bundling with cooperating "lost and found" |
| columnist Baig got back 4 of 6 purposely "lost" items | | | | companies to bring your laptop, PDA or iPod back |
| (two thirds) in his experiment. Baig mentioned in his | | | | home when it is lost. |
| column that it was the least expensive things that | | | | |