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A Louisiana man traumatized by a frightening home break-in channels his energy into developing a defensive weapon that will always be in your pocket

Siri can help with lots of things, but keeping you safe on a dimly lit street isn’t one of them. That’s why a few savvy inventors from Baton Rouge, La., have created a souped-up case for the iPhone 4 and 4S that pulls double-duty as a bad-guy-zapping stun gun. Here’s what you should know about the Yellow Jacket case:

Why put a taser on an iPhone? Yellow Jacket co-founder Seth Froom says he came up with the idea after being robbed at gunpoint in his home. (Watch an unsettling re-enactment video below.) Froom says he was frustrated that even the guns he had in the house couldn’t protect him, as they were out of reach during the break-in, and resolved to come up with a defensive weapon that would be on his person at all times. Well, says Alex Cocilova at PC World, the Yellow Jacket’s creators “made a pretty safe assumption” that most people who are about to be mugged are probably already thumbing through their iPhones.

How does it work? The stun gun — which looks like many run-of-the-mill iPhone cases, only thicker — delivers a 650,000-volt zap of electricity, and has its own built-in battery.

Full story at The Week.

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