Dear snatch thieves, the next bag you steal could blow up in your face

UPDATE: We get a response from Ash Be Nimble regarding availability.

Snatch thieves are abhorrent people who are pretty much worse than the scum of the earth…and Malaysia is, unfortunately, a country with way too many of them. To make matters worse, snatch thieves are also super hard to catch because most of them speed off on motorcycles before people have time to react.

Well, now there’s a clothing company that thinks they’ve got a solution to this problem.

Ash Be Nimble is a Malaysian clothing company that prides themselves on making quality sportswear that’s affordable and accessible. Now, though, they want to take things a step further and the Handbag Dyetonator is what they’ve come up with.

The idea for this product is pretty simple. It’s a small, fairly inconspicuous, device that you can clip to your handbag or backpack which consists of a mobile controlled device (which you can put a SIM in), GPS, coloured dye and a smoke flare pack that users can easily detonate.

By detonate, I don’t mean blowing the bag, and the thief, up like a concentrated charge of plastic explosives. Instead, when you send a detonation code via SMS to the Dyetonator, the package will deploy and cover the assailant in coloured dye. From the demo video, the Dyetonator will also continue leaving a trail of coloured smoke — which can alert passersby — like the Red Arrows at an airshow.

Simple and straightforward right? Well, yes. But we do see some problems with it.

The first would be the unit’s battery life. According to the website, the device has a standby time of just 5 days and it takes a whopping two hours to charge up. For a small mobile controlled device that doesn’t have a screen nor do data, we really feel that the battery life could have been longer.

And, if the reason the battery life is so short is because it has a small battery, it should charge a whole lot faster than 2 hours. We suspect that one of the reasons why the battery life is so short is because the GPS is always on so perhaps they could instead have the GPS turn on only when the detonation code is sent to extend battery life.

Next, there’s the problem with the way the device is detonated. Sending an SMS seems like an incredibly inefficient way to detonate something in an emergency because its reliability is subject to so many different variables. Anyone who has waited for a TAC number that never arrived would probably know what I’m talking about.

Besides, there’s that whole problem of needing your phone with you to send a text. Since this seems targetted at women, particularly those who are alone, my question is: Don’t women usually keep their phones in their handbags? Aren’t women’s clothes infamous for having no pockets? Or, at least, pockets that are way too small for stuff like your gigantic smartphones? Of course, this is just from my observation, if you think otherwise, do correct me in the comments below.

And finally, though this may be the most nitpicky of them all, I wonder how easy it would be to get something like this through airport security.

That said, this is definitely an interesting concept to combat a crime that’s so often invisible to the public eye and hard to trace. To make matters worse, Malaysia doesn’t really have a law to directly address snatch theft. Snatch thefts that happen here are often charged under the section 392 (Robbery) or 394 (Voluntarily causing hurt in committing robbery) of the Penal Code (depending on the investigating officer and deputy public prosecutor).

However, the Handbag Dyetonator right now looks like it’s nothing more than a prototype. Ash Be Nimble are still only taking registration of interests right now at this website and there doesn’t seem to be any signs that it will be hitting the market soon. We have reached out to Ash Be Nimble for a statement regarding availability and pricing but are waiting to hear back from them.

We’re definitely interested and have registered our interest. We’d love to test this out.

What do you guys think of the Handbag Dyetonator? Let us know in the comments below!

UPDATE:

We now have a statement from Ash Be Nimble themselves regarding the Dyetonator. Here’s what they have to say about the availability of the device:

“At this stage, the Handbag Dyetonator is still undergoing trials and research and therefore, is not yet available to the public. While we continue to work on it and improve it to be as efficient, effective and easy-to-use as possible for the user, our aim is also to address the larger issue of women’s safety in Malaysia. Through the Handbag Dyetonator, we want to deter snatch thieves from snatching another bag, and create awareness about how women are being targeted in petty crimes, causing them to feel unsafe on the streets. Ultimately, we want to rally Malaysians to petition for stricter laws for snatch thieves, so they don’t repeat the crime.”

Besides that, the Ash Be Nimble rep also said this regarding pricing:

“As the device is still undergoing testing and research, the demand for Handbag Dyetonator will greatly determine the price, availability as well as other factors.”

Regarding concerns surrounding your smartphone being stolen along with your bag, this is what they said:

“The Handbag Dyetonator can be activated from ANY mobile phone, using a designated detonation code. In a country with 144% mobile penetration, where 47% of Malaysians own more than 1 mobile phone, accessing a second phone (whether from a friend or a passerby) to activate the device will be no trouble at all. In addition, while we are still working on improving the device and embracing valuable insights, Handbag Dyetonator may even evolve to include a host of upgraded features.”

And finally, they also responded to my concerns regarding airport clearance:

“Handbag Dyetonator uses pressure force to activate the coloured dye and smoke flare. It is no more dangerous than an average aerosol spray. But like aerosol sprays, it is not advised to carry onto an airplane.”