SkunkLock is ready to sell the product in countries with high rates of bike theft.
Bicycle thieves beware! A new bicycle lock has been developed by a US firm that thwarts burglars by making them vomit uncontrollably when they try to cut through it.
San Francisco native Daniel Idzkowski, one of the inventors of 'SkunkLock', was fed up with having his bike stolen, so he set out to create a new kind of bicycle lock, one that would not just act as a deterrent but would actually stop would-be thieves in their tracks.
With his co-inventor, Yves Perrenoud, Idzkowski created a U-shaped lock of carbon and steel with a hollow chamber to hold one of three pressurised gases of their own concoction, including one called 'formula D_1'. When someone cuts about 30 per cent of the way into the lock, Idzkowski said, the gas erupts in the direction of the gash.
The company claims its "noxious chemical" is so disgusting it "induces vomit in the majority of cases."
Even better, the company claims, the gas causes "shortness of breathing" and impaired eyesight.
"It's pretty effective," said Idzkowski, who has exposed himself to each of the company's three proprietary formulas.
"The first time we exposed ourselves to it, we essentially started running away...It was far worse than we expected," he was quoted as saying by East Bay Times.
Idzkowski said the effects are temporary - lasting between 20 minutes to several hours -- depending on the person and their level of exposure.
The non-toxic spray uses a mix of thiols -- a naturally occurring sulphur compound characterised by its foul smell -- and acids.
Some of the formulas also contain capsaicin, the chemical used in pepper spray. None of the formulas fall into any existing regulatory category, Idzkowski said, though he admitted the product may spur lawmakers to create one.
"Our formula irreversibly ruins the clothes worn by the thief or any of the protection they may be wearing," the company claims on its crowdfunding page.
SkunkLock is also already looking at selling the product in countries with high rates of bike theft -- including the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Germany, France, Denmark, Finland, Belgium, Sweden, and Japan, media reports said.
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