Mischievous teen arrested for turning camera into taser
By Darren Murph 
posted April 4th 2008 10:33AM
posted April 4th 2008 10:33AM
Regardless of what the UN / Taser thinks, the fuzz around Clinton, Connecticut aren't too fond of taser-like weapons being in the hands of teenagers. Case in point: a 14-year old with a certain knack for wandering around the intarwebz and filling his brain with all sorts of hacktastic methodologies managed to stumble upon directions (what, these?) for transforming a vanilla disposable camera into something "capable of zapping people with an electrical charge." School Resource Officer Kyle Strunjo even said that the improvised weapon was "potentially capable of a 600-volt shock," though it wasn't actually used on anyone before it got swiped by the boys in blue. Chin up kid, you've got a future waiting for you yet.[Image courtesy of DIYLive, thanks Ninad]
...got a future waiting for you yet... what?
Who didn't taser their annoying friends with a camera in high School? I did, and was tasered as well. The fun stopped when somebody bought a stun-gun.
Stun Gun, Not TASER
idiots
I love you, no I really do. You go around correcting people, and giving them a leacture on electricty. Then you say amperage instead of current.
**Shakes head disapprovingly**
We did this back in the 60's only back then the camera had to stay plugged into the wall for it to work. If it wasn't for all the drugs being taken back then, I doubt anyone would have ever fallen for it.
shock isnt so bad kidslove to play with electricity. I remember when I was 8 or 9 I went to camp in the countryside in france and we found an electric fence enclosing a horse. trying to pet the horse one of the kids realized the fence was electric and we spent the rest of the day playing around with it, holding each others hands and seing how many people would get shocked if only one person grabed the fence, or seing if apples would transmit current they were fun times,
Tasers today, phasers tomorrow. This kid has obviously been doing his quantum mechnaics homework.
When I was 14 I was on a class trip and discovered that the disposable camera I had been using could generate a nasty shock. My friends and I decided it would be funny to zap one of our other friends on the hand while he was sleeping on the bus. He didn't think it was so funny.
Anyway, it was stupid thing to do, but if this kid got arrested just for having the modified camera, I can't imagine what kind of trouble we would have been in.
@JS +1
Licking 9v battery was fun =D
ahhhh, the good ol' days
Having either shouldn't be an arrestable offense.
The theory behind this is as follows:
The gun probably won't be abused by a horny teenager looking to get laid. It's very unlikely that your average citizen would rob or rape someone at gunpoint. Most people would be afraid of accidentally killing someone, even if they were inclined to rape or rob people.
However, with a non-lethal but incapacitating weapon, the fear of accidental murder (and a longer jail sentence) is averted. The would-be rapist/mugger can just ZAP someone, do the deed, and make off without causing a death. Furthermore, it's silent, doesn't require licensing, and isn't traceable like a properly-purchased gun. At worst, they get caught and sentenced for the main crime (rape or mugging) and have assault charges added. They can't get nailed for assault with a deadly weapon or attempted murder. They walk in less than 5 years. They may even get just probation if they're a teenager.
So these non-lethal weapons are in some ways MORE likely to lead to crime than a gun. With a gun, there's a consequence and it's easy to track down the person who pulled the trigger. With a taser or stungun, there's no unique signature, no way to identify WHO did it, and when it's homemade like this, there's not even a serial number or record of a sale so they can narrow down the suspects in a given area.
For some teenagers, the homemade taser and stun-gun have become known by some as "electric GHB" for a reason. The last thing a school needs is a bully with a weapon that incapacitates his victim without leaving a trace. If he gets them from behind, his identity may never be known.
Would YOU feel secure knowing that the worst person you know was walking around with the power to render you, or your sister or wife or mother, unconscious without making a sound or leaving any evidence behind?
In many ways, tasers are worse than bullets.
"Would YOU feel secure knowing that the worst person you know was walking around with the power to render you, or your sister or wife or mother, unconscious without making a sound or leaving any evidence behind?"
no i would NOT feel secure. But, where you're analysis falters is that this is NOT about a TASER, and it will NOT make someone unconscious. Also, from my experience, it DOES make a sound when the capacitor is discharged. Therefore, this entire *thing* is uncalled for.
have a nice day.
Same thing just happened in Canada this is weird o.O
http://www.thestar.com/News/GTA/article/410176
Automatic weapons are prohibited by federal law, plus the Supreme court is currently deciding on the translation of the 2nd amendment( the one that guarentees a right to bear arms) as to whether it protects an individuals right to own a gun as opposed to the right assembling a militia.
I wonder where this wonderful idea could have come from.
Note Engadget of course!
http://www.engadget.com/2004/04/30/turn-a-disposable-camera-into-a-stun-gun/
I can't believe no one has said it yet. "Don't taze me bro!"
Not even a stun gun. Both stun guns and tasers are able to keep a charge current going to immobilize a person. This is just a single shock prank device. But of course the headlines just look better when you have "11 year old uses TASER" in big bold letters.
Yeah, exactly... it's the amps that'll get ya.
yeah that's nothing new, a friend and I were once disassembling a disposable camera back in middle school, we foolishly forgot to remove the battery and I got a nasty shock, nothing debilitating, but it was much worse than the way some of the people on here describe, maybe the camera's batteries were fresher when it happened to me, but I lost control of all my muscles during the jolt, I remained concious, and I was fine in a moment, so it was pretty nasty, but not debilitating.
That really is dangerous. A flash capaitor can kill you if you take it in the chest. Real tasers and stun guns are designed to deliver very high voltage at very low currents. (Yes, I know tasers DO kill, but they are designed not to. If they do, it's a failure of the device or how it's used.) The unregulated output from this can, for a brief period of time, deliver higher voltage and current than household AC.
Hm... Would it be possible to rig up a couple of these and set them off in succession in order to have a multiple-charge set up? I think that'd be pretty badass. Some jock comes to kick your ass and you just whip that out and poke him with it.
i really hate those flash zappers. i had one taken apart and zapped myself with my sweaty hands. it current discharged for about 1 second and it hurts! once it start it seems no amount of jerking would dislodge the zap... it was kinda of sticky?
@ZeroCorpse:
So should any weapon or other object be lethal if it can cause any harm at all?
I'll go put some rusty nails in my baseball bat (or better yet, my fist) so in case I get the urge to knock someone out to mug them, I'll think better of it because they could die.
I see what you are saying, but your argument has a lot of holes in it.
I just got back from building one of these in my garage. I used the tops of nails as prongs (not the sharp ends.) Unfortunately it looks like it was just taped together in some guys garage (which it was.) I hope to make a cooler looking and more reliable version soon. As for injury, the worst part of the construction process was when I stepped on my soldering iron with only socks on. Ouch. I haven't tried shocking anyone yet.
ahahahahahahah i made one of those...with 5x the power...(still 330v but 2-5amps) and it hurts...my question is...where did he get arrested.....
sweet.
Dam you just had to say it before me didn't you.
Yep, I worked in enough photo labs to know that the charge these things give off will definitely stop you for an instant. I had it happen a few times and it sucked. The fun part, however, is taking a screwdriver to the prongs and watching the sparks fly.
The flashes in those things will carry a charge long enough to a point where you can drop them on the ground and the will still go off, without having to feed it more juice from that AA battery inside. I never bought AAs when I worked at photo labs.
hahaha this is the town next to mine. i read "14 year old" and instantly thought this was something my brother would do...but i just called him and he wasn't the moron who did this
here's an idea: maybe the camera companies could improve their technology so their products can't be turned into tasers...just a thought
I remember doing this as well when I was 12, probably earlier too. It hurt a bit sometimes but it was never life threatening. At least I never saw anyone get hurt out of the hundreds of times i've seen it done.
I don't know about other areas but around here automatic weapons are for the most part banned, and even normal guns have to be registered. Kids can't just run around carrying THEM either.
ha ha, got to love those stupid stupid people..
One shot stuns, two shots kill.
(and three disintegrates... or not)
ARRESTED?!?! These schoools are unreal. As far as disiplanary actions available to school officials there are alot available ranging from taking the thing away and putting in their desk drawer like they took my electric cigarette lighter arc zapper in 3rd grade to detention to 1-5 day in school suspension to 5 days out of school 2 weeks out of school even rest of the year out of school suspension so why the need to get the police involved when nobodie was even injured this is not hardly a lethal weapon when you bring a knife to school you get 5 days out of school suspension when a knife is obviously more lethal then a disposible camera taser, its really just above and beyond and proves these people running our schools have zero common sense. I was an asshole in jr high/hs and i had this feud going with this one teacher who wasnt even one of my teachers she was a home ec teacher mrs. costello from east islip long island ny and me and my friend used to harass her because she was always going out of her way to give us an unnessaray hard time she had lunch duty during our period and would try to force us to do things step by step her way where to sit by ourselves not to talk not to get up at all and not to go outside in 8th grade anyway one time i saw a letter on her desk with her adress so i said 'hey ms costello your from smithtown?' that was it i did it like a dick to scare her which was wrong but she mostly forgot about it untill about 2 weeks later when she was with her favorite brown nose student just the 2 of them in the time out room and the kid wasnt looking so ms costello was sneaking a nose pick so i ducked my head in and commented something about pick me a winner or dont pick to hard and she was highly embarresed so next day i get called down to the principal and when i walk in shock its ms costello my dad and a suffolk county cop filling out a report she told them i said i was gona blow up her house which was totally made up this was just her way at getting back at me a 12 year old. several years later my little brother tells me she was just fired for hitting a little girl in class. anyone believe me at the time that she was lying? fat chance
I know the picture doesn't have to necessarily match the article, but I think it is rather amusing how the single use camera in the picture has no flash on it and thus has not battery/capacitor.
I worked in a photo lab a couple years ago and first day of training I would have a little fun with the trainee when telling them about the single use cameras. I used to charge the flash, pull the cover off of the camera, then short out the capacitor by twisting so the wires touched. A couple of female trainees even screamed a bit because they had no idea that it would spark like that. It really isn't a very big deal though. I got shocked a few times with the single use cameras and it gets your attention, but doesn't hurt really.
We made these when I was in my technical training for the Air Force. It just stings a bit, and then it's gone. No permanent damage. No chance you'd go into cardiac arrest, unless you already had massive heart problems.
Hmmm, maybe the TSA should hire him as a consultant...
i did one of these as a school project but i just tazered myself heaps, so instead i just didnt do anything those clases.... man im so wise
At least it wasn't a shotgun, good thinking, this teen is an all American in my book, go USA!
We used to do the same thing with the little electrode in cigarette lighters. Big deal. They'll probably put him in Guantanamo Bay for some sort of terrorist offense. We used to build bombs in Jr. High. It was never to hurt anyone, only inanimate objects. It's part of human curiosity.