If you're planning on stealing anything from the London Borough of Brent, you might want to think twice—or at least hope you look good in green. The Brent Police Department has a crazy new secret weapon that covers crooks head to toe in a semipermanent emerald, ultraviolet glow. And they have no idea until it's too late.


Currently being tested by the Brent Police throughout the area, an odorless, invisible, and damn-near unwashable chemical called SmartWater (no relation) has already managed to catch at least one car thief. The unlucky burglar, Yafet Askale, fell for the police department's booby-trapped car, which sprayed Askale with a fine mist of the stuff as soon as it detected an intrusion.


So once police hunted him down, ultraviolet scans showed that his face and jacket were covered in SmartWater's signature glow, and despite a plea of not guilty, he was convicted of theft and sentenced accordingly.

The SmartWater systems have been implemented on cars and houses in the area as a means of deterring thieves and catching the ones that strike anyway—and looks like they're on to something. Ever since the police handed out free SmartWater kits to locals to mark their valuables, street robbery has decreased a total of 40 percent with burglary going down a whopping 80 percent. But if that wasn't clear enough, the Brent Police, speaking to The Daily Mail, made sure to spell things out for any would-be-crooks:

Don't come to Brent - our trap cars and trap houses are waiting for you.

So if that doesn't make any potential Brent burglars green-around-the-gills, they will be soon—whether they like it or not. [The Daily Mail]