At first glance it looks like a bicycle lock without more, but it is not. Because this innovative object, in addition to being made of resistant steel and carbon, contains inside a defense mechanism that makes it unique, since it expels a chemical compound when a thief tries to break it to take the vehicle.
The gases released by the SkunkLock possess irritating properties and normally cause vomiting in its victims: 99% of the people who were exposed to a distance of 60 centimeters from the lock felt nauseous. Despite everything, its creators assure that it is safe to drive, even if it falls or hits something and that its daily use does not compromise its safety.
The smell that it releases when the thief has cut approximately 30% of its structure is very similar to that expelled by skunks when they feel attacked – hence the name of the device, since “skunk” means skunk in Spanish. The goal is for the offender to get out of hand and renounce to continue cutting the lock and, consequently, to take the bicycle.
Its inventors, Daniel Idzkowski and Yves Perrenoud, live in San Francisco (USA) and came up with creating this lock after they and their friends had their bikes stolen several times. “We want SkunkLock to be a wake-up call to tool thieves who know that any bike lock can be cut in a minute, ” they explain.
The SkunkLock, which has been made known through the Indiegogo crowdfunding platform – in which, by raising almost 35,000 euros, it has practically doubled the financing it needed to get going – can be obtained from $ 109 (about 98 euros).
Its creators report that they will be able to ship this anti-knock lock from June 2017 . Of course, always pending the legislation of each country, since in some states the shipment of products containing capsaicin is prohibited – in the case of some versions of SkunkLock – regulations that were promulgated due to pepper sprays. For that reason, they have worked on variants with an alternative formula that does not use capsaicin as an irritant and that aims to try to make the lock compatible with those other regulations.
In this video you can see how it works:
Image: SkunkLock
