Work of Genius: anti-theft rust and scratch stickers

Sticker sets of authentic scratches and rust called Anti-Theft Bike Car Device are for sale, designed according to their creator Dominic Wilcox "to make your beautiful bike look rusted and scratched and therefore not worth stealing."

This morning's post on bike security by road.cc blogger Flo K contained the advice to camouflage your pride and joy by hiding all the expensive looking logos and so on. He could hardly have guessed that a Londoner was already well ahead, having photographed the real article around Hackney and gone on to create slightly post-modern sticker sets with the specific aim of making your bike look as worthless as possible.

"These rust and scratch stickers are designed to make your beautiful bike/car look rusted and scratched so that passing thieves assume it's not worth stealing due to its apparent shabbyness," says the designer on his personal shop.

Although quickly adding the proviso, "This anti-theft device is not guaranteed to work in any way. However I have stuck them to my shiny new red bike and can confirm it hasn't been stolen yet. 13 days of not being stolen in London probably equates to 7 years of non-stealing in the friendly countryside."

Price per set is £3.99. Good work, that man.

Details: variationsonnormal.com

Thanks to the folks at Green Oil for the tipoff.