Peri, if I’m stuck with going with the non-permanent mark route, I’d far, far rather use an aqueous silver nitrate solution.
The solution is colorless, and odorless. Not something that can be said for a Sharpie.
When first applied to human skin, it remains colorless.
After several hours, or exposure to sunlight, the silver nitrate burns the skin, leaving it blackened, much like a Sharpie mark. However, it can’t be washed off. Have to wait for it grow and flake off. About two weeks, IIRC.
Sure, Silver Nitrate is going to leave a chemical burn - but I had to use it for years, and while I got the occaisional ‘burn’ it never hurt. Nor really irritated my skin beyond the black mark mentioned above. I know it’s also a tenatively marked carcinogen - but considering the whole point of the ‘THIEF’ marking is to let someone else know that “Here’s someone deserving of a beating” I’m not sure it matters all that much.
By the way, could you please elucidate this bit about having things you are mailing stolen? I’m confused as to how this can take place at your end. Why are the things still at your house? Don’t you put them in a mailbox?
Not sure how it works in Canada, but here, if you want to mail something, but don’t have the time to get to the post office, or drive around looking for a PO Drop box, you can put mail in your own mailbox and raise a flag to let the postman know there’s outgoing mail. And now, you can pay for your packages online, print a label and put it on the package, and as long as the shipping weight and everything is okay, you don’t have to hassel with lines at the PO.
matt_mcl, I purchase postage online, so the package is carrier-ready once I’m done with it. And, alas, the packages don’t fit in my mailbox, so they would get left near the mailboxes - a solution that I’d used before this whole mess started with no problems - and be picked up by the mail carrier when he dropped the incoming mail off.
Now, of course, I’ve stopped doing that. Which means a mile and a half walk to the nearest Post Office. Well, I do need the exercise.
Oh, found out another incoming package got swiped last week, too. :mad:
May the fleas of a thousand camels infest this person’s genitals. And deliver a bountiful collection of secondary infestations.
Huh. Maybe it’s because I’m a city boy, but I’m not familiar with any system other than dumping the thing into a mailbox or taking it to the post office.
