"Fingerprinting" a Vehicle!

As part of the sophomore class' basic forensics unit, we decided to try something we've never tried in shop before, "fingerprinting" a vehicle! For this lesson, we found a pair of tire tracks left around the school. Once we identified a good set of tracks, we photographed and measured them, cast them, and then were successfully able to find a vehicle in the parking lot that had the same tire tread pattern and size. From here, we were determined to prove that this was the exact vehicle that left the tracks! We brought the vehicle into shop and took the vehicle's "fingerprints." Afterwards, we compared the photos, measurements, casting, and rolled track until we found the exact tire and tire segment that left the tracks! (Left front tire after about 3 hours of analysis!)