This New iPhone Case Has a Stun Gun

Photo courtesy of Griffin

The market for iPhone accessories is big business. Apple-approved products raked in an estimated $2 to $3 billion last year, according to The Fiscal Times. A quick Google search yields thousands of add-on options, from headsets to speakers to armored cases that promise to protect your smartphone from damage, even if you drop it down a flight of stairs or run it over with a car. But no accessory promised any protection for its user. Until now.

The Yellow Jacket is marketing itself as the world’s first defensive smart phone case, able to protect your phone and your life. The half-pound device contains a stun gun that’s capable of delivering a whopping 650,000-volt shock, strong enough to take down an aggressive adult male, according to a promotional video on the product’s website.

And in case there’s any doubt regarding whether it really works, there’s a video of the Yellow Jacket in action. Who would ever volunteer to be on the receiving end of a stun gun? None other than its inventor, Seth Froom, as a part of his pitch for the product at a business plan competition earlier this year, which would have provided him with funds to take the Yellow Jacket to production. Despite the daring (or maybe just stupid) stunt, the Yellow Jacket failed to win first place.

Luckily for Froom, he’s found another way to raise funds that doesn’t involve being tasered. He raised over $89,000 on crowd-funding site indiegogo.com, where users donated money to the Yellow Jacket campaign in exchange for various incentives. For a $1 donation, funders received a thank-you email. For $100, funders were promised a Yellow Jacket case. And for $380, funders were promised a “family pack” of four cases, one for “everyone in your nest,” according to the site (because giving your kids an electroshock weapon sounds like a smart idea).

Although the campaign is around $10,000 short of its $100,000-fundraising goal, Froom will still get to keep most of the money. The device is slated for production this fall.

Whether it’s a good idea to place a device capable of releasing 650,000 volts of electricity next to your face remains to be seen. While the Yellow Jacket has two safety mechanisms intended to prevent accidental discharge—a safety switch and an electrode cap that must be rotated downward to work—“there are always exceptions that we cannot account for,” according to the product FAQ.

Thinking about getting a Yellow Jacket for yourself?

Think again if you’re a resident of Massachusetts. Stun guns are illegal for commercial purchase or possession in the Bay State.

And if you live outside of Massachusetts?

Well, I’d think twice before you get your new iPhone case too close to the pool.