“Still, arrests do happen thanks to color balls,” Gordenker wrote in the 2008 article. “Just last month, a man held up an agricultural cooperative in Yokohama and made off with a bag of cash. When an employee was able to mark the getaway truck with a color ball, the thief abandoned his vehicle and fled on foot. But the police tracked him down through the truck’s registration and arrested him at home.”

Seems like it may actually work. We should apply more thinking like this.