EPHRATA - In the fight against property crime, the Grant County Sheriff's Office is thinking small.

Just last year, nearly $5 million worth of property was reported stolen in Grant County, according to the National Incident Based Reporting System used by law enforcement. Even when the property is recovered, as about 25 percent of it was, finding the owner is often impossible.

To help make it easier to identify stolen property, the sheriff's office will be utilizing tiny "DNA dots," called CopDots, a pen-like applicator holding an adhesive containing thousands of tiny discs, or dots, that residents can apply to their property. The discs are marked with a unique code that can only be read with a powerful magnifying lens, and can be traced to its owner. Just one pen, costing about $30, can be used to mark about 50 items. The dots can be applied to anything from landscaping equipment to auto parts, jewelry and electronics.

Sheriff Tom Jones said the department had used a sticker program in the past for residents to mark property but the stickers could be easily removed.

Jones said the CopDots allow residents an easy way to identify property without having to write down all the serial numbers, something Jones said most people aren't doing. When the sheriff's office recovers stolen property but can't identify an owner, they're not able to store the property, let alone return it.

"A lot of it we have to leave," Jones said. "That's the big thing, because we can't identify an owner to it, we don't have a victim, so therefore we can't just go and take it. We know it's stolen, there's just no way to identify it. I know it's just as frustrating for the property owners as it is for us."

Last year, the sheriff's office found thousands of dollars worth of stolen property near Ephrata but the owners of about 60 percent of the property could not be identified.

Jones said he has ordered the law enforcement kit through CopDots, whose U.S. headquarters are in North Carolina. The kit includes an ultraviolet light to locate the dots, which are about the size of a grain of sand, and a magnifier to read the identification number. When consumers buy CopDots, they register their property on the company's website and can report it stolen through the site as well as to law enforcement.

Jones said the high-tech equipment, introduced in the U.S. in April, is a cost effective way to combat property crime. CopDots are currently available at the Moses Lake Lowe's, but Jones said the department will be testing the product before announcing when they will begin using the technology.