Car-mounted flamethrowers! (No Q content)

[William Elliott <CN=William.Elliott/OU=MKE/OU=CORP/O=MMS#064#MMS%lngw@wtgw.corp.mei.com>]

Car-mounted flamethrower sold as hijacking deterrent 

               Baltimore Sun 

               February 04, 1999

               Johannesburg, South Africa -- It is the latest device to join 
the armory of personal security weapons deployed
               by a nerve-racked citizenry. 

               Already, many South Africans will not venture out of their 
high-walled, electric-fenced, window-barred and
               burglar-alarmed homes without a gun. Now comes the newest, 
hottest deterrent -- and the first person to order
               the product is a police superintendent. 

               The auto-mounted flamethrower's inventor, Charl Flourie, 
insists: "I am the last person to want to burn anyone.
               But if someone attacks you, they will kill you, they will rape 
you, and they will maim you." 

               The device is built into the car doors, and is operated by 
pushing a button beside the foot pedals. It sends a
               man-high fireball from the car, engulfing the hijacker without 
endangering the passengers or damaging the auto's
               paint. 

               Operating the $650 device requires much less movement than 
pulling a gun, and therefore -- theoretically at least
               -- involves less risk of provoking the carjacker into shooting. 

               "It's a pity one has to resort to such extreme measures," 
Flourie says. "But if my wife stops in the driveway (a
               frequent venue for carjackings) and these people attack her, I 
would rather she has this system than not." 

               Carjacking is a common crime here, with the stolen cars usually 
taken to the depressed townships surrounding
               large cities to be stripped for parts, illegally re-registered 
through corrupt officials, or exported to neighboring
               countries by crime syndicates. 

               For every 100,000 South Africans, there were 32.7 carjackings 
between January and November last year,
               according to official figures -- up from 29.1 over the same 
period of 1997. 

               Based on a population of 40.5 million, that translates into 
about 13,000 carjackings in an 11-month period, more
               than 1,000 a month. Fewer than one in 10 carjacking cases ends 
up in court, and only one in 50 ends in a
               conviction. 

               Facing such figures, it is hardly surprising that South Africans 
have given a warm reception to Flourie's
               flamethrower. He has, he says, received 800 orders for what is 
appropriately marketed as The Blaster. 

               The Blaster works from a canister of liquefied gas, and, 
according to Flourie, is safer in an accident than an
               auto's gasoline tank. 

               "It is used for the specific purpose of saving your property or 
your life," says Flourie, adding that the flame
               would administer up to third-degree burns and possibly blind 
someone, but it would not be lethal. 


What's the world coming to?

Bill Elliott
Lake Mills, WI
...only need a flamethrower here for warmth....