title: Burglar Beware! link: https://onemoretech.wordpress.com/2008/04/11/burglar-beware/ author: lembobro description: post_id: 541 created: 2008/04/11 13:16:32 created_gmt: 2008/04/11 13:16:32 comment_status: open post_name: burglar-beware status: publish post_type: post

Burglar Beware!

From NPR in Afganistan, comes this story:

Afghanistan has a real-life version of Doc Brown, the kinetically hyperactive and clever inventor in the Back to the Future movies.

Like his fictitious counterpart, Afghan inventor Hanif Molavizadeh isn’t widely lauded for his odd creations. But supporters believe his inventions could help fight growing crime in Afghanistan.

Take, for instance, his homemade burglar alarm.

With its urgent ticking, the alarm in a wooden box almost seems to dare someone to try and break into Molavizadeh’s one-room home, which doubles as his workshop.

A simple wave of the hand outside the window triggers the alarm’s motion detectors and sets off a song-like warning. An automated voice warns there is an intruder.

The contraption then calls Molavizadeh’s cell phone. He says he can receive the automated warning from up to four miles away.

He shouts “Hello, who are you?” into his phone, and the sound of his voice is transmitted and broadcast through the alarm box.

If that’s not enough to stop a would-be burglar, he says, then remote-firing the Kalashnikov attached to the wooden box should do the trick.

Afghan Engineer Has Kalashnikov, Will Invent by Soraya Sarhaddi Nelson

A nice picture of the device:

Kind of puts the American-made “spring gun” contraptions we read about in law school to shame — proving once again that the good ol’ U.S.A. doesn’t have a monopoly on innovation after all.

(there’s audio of Soraya’s interview with Molavizadeh up on the above-referenced link)

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