"Taser no substitute for car keys"... Well, yeah... :-/
Thought this was a particularly good example of not thinking things through:Charleston Post & Courier
Taser no substitute for car keys
Saturday, November 18, 2006
A few selected tidbits from the article...
A 35-year-old Summerville woman called for help after locking her 4-year-old son inside the van parked in the lot outside Ladson Baptist Church at 9659 Jamison Road.
While waiting for a locksmith, Master Deputy Hal Gooding decided to improvise. He applied the Taser to the driver-side keyhole for five seconds, according to an incident report.
"I attempted to short the electric locking system by discharging my Taser," he wrote in the report. "The attempt failed."
The child remained inside the van until the locksmith showed up.
Taser International did not respond to an inquiry on Friday...
Charleston.net
My letter to the editor. :)
Dear Editor,
Regarding your story:
Taser no substitute for car keys
Saturday, November 18, 2006
Rather than calling Taser International for comment on this story, you should have called any locksmith in the phonebook. Car door locks, whether electronic or keyed (manual), still work in the same, time tested, ol'fashioned way. The inner working of any car door has a series of linkages and rods, very prehistoric, that when properly manipulated, with key or remote (that acts as a key), move into place to allow the lock to disengage. Even electronically locked car doors still have to be manipulated open with tools by a locksmith or trained individual to properly move these internal linkages and rods. Electronically locked car doors opened via remote are still, in the simplest terms, a turning of a key, just from a distance, which then moves the linkages into the proper place to unlock the door.
Tasering it all day would have done nothing to open the door, but it could, in the worst of circumstances, have very well fried the car's internal computer chip and ignition sequence, rendering the car useless to drive, and necessitating a replacement of the very expensive dash computer "brains". Some cars that have these highly sophisticated "brains" can incur costs upwards of $2000 to $3000 to replace those "brains".
Not certain of the Police/Firefighter liability in this case, but I bet a good lawyer could make a case if the officer had fried the system. Not something I would suggest Police or Firefighters attempt in the future. :)
Last but not least, what if that child had not followed directions (assuming directions were given, which assumes a forethought not evidenced elsewhere in this situation), and had reached out and touched a piece of metal while said officer was waiting for the magic lock gnomes to open the lock?
The dumbing down of America proceeds apace.
Cheers!
Kim Dryden
Owner
San Diego Lock & Safe™
We're not your normal locksmith company™... :)
read or link to the full post here...
