PA Bill Number: HB2663
Title: Providing for older adults protective services; and making a repeal.
Description: Providing for older adults protective services; and making a repeal. ...
Last Action: Referred to AGING AND OLDER ADULT SERVICES
Last Action Date: Nov 19, 2024
Cutting edge self-defense device promises to stop criminals in their tracks - Q13 FOX puts it to the test :: 10/30/2015
A cutting edge self-defense device promises to stop predators in their tracks.
"As a woman in this day and age, you can't be too safe," said Sarah Tyree of Federal Way. "But at the end of the day if something happens and your 3 miles into a run, you're tired, you're exhausted ... even if you have good defense moves, you're not going to be very effective."
Sarah loves to run and always tries to stay aware of her surroundings. So she agreed to take the new Defense Alert Device (DAD) out for a test run. It's designed with a powerful light you can use to temporarily blind an attacker and a military strength pepper spray.
Michael Teig developed the dad for his 7 daughters, especially for use on college campuses. If a person feels frightened, it has a Bluetooth crowd alert button to alert others with the app that they needs help.
"I mean literally in one instant, 5,000 people within a quarter-mile of me on campus could get an alert with my picture, my name, they know who I am, where I am and that I'm in trouble," he said.
Sierra Milam wishes she'd had one. She was kidnapped at age 14 from a hotel pool while on a family vacation, then forced into sex trafficking.
"It was just so scary and i was so traumatized at a very young age and nobody, boy or girl, nobody should have to go through this," said Sierra.
Sierra escaped but it took 2 months for police to find the traffickers...teig says the pepper spray in the dad would have put them down for 30 to 45 minutes.
"It's gonna put fear in the minds of criminals," said Michael.
The DAD costs $130 and he's donating a portion of the sales to Operation Underground Railroad. The non-profit fights child sex trafficking around the world and has rescued more than 300 kids so far.
Tom Burns runs CRT Less Lethal, a company that tests products like this for consumers.
"Like all less lethal tools, it's a good product if properly trained, if people have a true understanding of how it works and a true understanding of what potentially could happen during the application," said Tom.
He advises people to get exposed to pepper spray before using it so they're familiar with the effects in case some of the spray blows back on them.
"At close range, everybody is going to get contaminated."
The DAD comes with an extra canister so you can practice. The idea is to spray it quickly and then run. The priority is to stop the attacker and get away.
"It works the way we say it works, and it's gonna have a tremendous impact on personal safety in this country," said Michael.
"You think about girls walking alone at night in secluded areas, I think this is just a great extra safety precaution," said Sarah.
Sarah has two young daughters and says she would definitely want them to be armed with a dad when they get older.
"For me, that's great. My husband can know if I'm in trouble," she said. "For girls, like college age, I think it's even better cause they have a group of people that are alerted that they are in a certain situation and they need help."
Click here for more information on the Defense Alert Device (DAD) >>
