PURPOSE OF INVENTION.

The invention refers to a device in accordance with preamble of the patent claim 1.

The purpose of the invention is to prevent the¬ ft from stores by rendering the stolen object unusable for the thief.

BACKGROUND OF INVENTION.

The situation for retail stores is problematic. Shoplifting is increasing and in 1988 amounted to approximately SEK 2000 million, in the Swed¬ ish clothing retail market alone.

The type of thieves differ depending on the lo¬ cation of the shops but generally speaking, they could look just ordinary. No specific category of persons can be decla¬ red suspect-free in advance.

It might be a senior citizen looking for excit¬ ement, a well dressed businessman who "forgot" to pay, a housewife wearing a fur coat special¬ ly designed for shop-lifting or teen-agers who consider stealing to be smart and "tough" thing to do.

Considering these facts, the shop attendants, who are to watch the articles in the shop and see to that they are not stolen, cannot catego-

rise a person in advance as a "typical" shop¬ lifter.

A considerable part of the shop attendants' time and energy is therefore directed to "watching" the customers instead of performing their proper tasks - to sell and give service. Furthermore, the shop becomes a place where sus¬ picion has to be directed on everybody.

The solution is for the staff to apply anti- theft devices to the articles in the shop.

This is done to a large extent, but unfortuna¬ tely the alarm systems are far from perfect, as is proved by the figure SEK 2000 million given earlier as the value of stolen clothes in Sweden during one year.

Some clothes shops in exposed locations have to calculate with a loss in stolen articles amounting to 8 % of the total turn over.

The predominant anti-theft technique used to¬ day is a device consisting of an anti-theft tab fastened to the article that is to be protected, and a detector that reacts when an anti-theft tab passes by. When this happens, the detector makes a noise that makes the staff aware ot the attempted theft. Unfortunately there are several techniques to "cheat" the systems with rather simple methods

- e.g. it is possible to screen off the elec¬ tronics or to remove the tray from the article by pinching off the lock-pin.

A few years ago another alarm system was intro¬ duced to the market - the so called "paint-clip", In this system there are no signals or other means to attract attention to the fact that an attempt at a theft is taking place. Instead with this technique, if the clip is removed in an incorrect manner, there is a risk that the stolen article becomes discoloured.

The weakness of this system is that the thief can steal a number of theft-protected articles from the shop without being noticed, then coax the alarms out in another place, and maybe suc¬ ceed with some.

Specially constructed tools for opening the alarm without breaking them also exist.

The problems of shop-lifting thus are of three different types.

1. The anti-theft tabs are coaxed open inside the shop and removed from the article, usu¬ ally by pinching off the lock-pin.

2. The stolen item is removed from the shop with the alarm still attached whilst the anti-theft tab is screened off so that the signal from it does not activate the detect¬ or.

3. Articles protected with paint-clips are re¬ moved from the shop and the alarm is opened a in safe place.

Against the background of these procedures we hereby apply for a patent for a device that with a new technique will render it considera¬ bly more difficult in all possible ways to steal from shops.

The device is based on the knowledge that a new pattern of thefts is surfacing, especial¬ ly in our large cities where gangs operate si¬ multaneously in the whole store.

They take with them what they want and they don't mind the noise from the alarm system when they pass through the exit - running.

Being identified as thieves by the public is not of any real concern to them, since in the gang it is considered smart to steal.

All the existing alarm systems are based on the presumption that the staff should inter¬ vene when articles are illegally removed from the store, whether they be supplied with anti- theft alarms or not.

The knowledge about this and the fear of being hurt in such situations involves a severe psy¬ chic stress among the staff, who in the cloth-

ing stores are often young girls, and can easily create feelings of discomfort and powerlessness. The device for which patent is applied for here transfers the responsibility for watch keeping from the staff to the alarm system on the goods.

If a thief tries to steal an article that is protected with the device for which patent is applied for here, the built-in fluid capsule will inevitably burst and destroy the stolen garment in a devastating manner.

The incentive for attempting to steal thereby disappears.

LIST OF DRAWINGS

Figure 1 A shows the first arm (1) in section.

Figure 1 B shows the second arm (2) in section.

Figure 1 C shows the alarm in its posi¬ tion when locking the item (3) that is to be theft protected.

Figure 2 shows an example of a shop en¬ vironment where the alarm may be used.

CONSTRUCTION OF INVENTION

Figure 1 shows the device for which patent is applied.

The device consists of a clip with a first (1) and a second (2) arm, the clip has an opened and a closed position.

The item (3) that is to be theft-protected is placed between the two arms of the clip (1,2) whereafter the clip is closed and a spike (4) that is fastened in the first arm (1) pierces the theft-protected item (3) and goes into the second arm (2) in which the spike is locked. In the two arms (1,2) is enclosed a fluid (5) in a glass/plastic ampoule. Since the fluid (5) in the two arms (1,2) covers the other compo¬ nents of the arms (1,2) the positioning of the fluid (5) provides an extra protection, making it impossible to reach the other components whitout leakage of fluid which would destroy the theft-protected item.

In case of an attempted theft, a release mecha¬ nism (7) will cause the glass/plastic ampoule (6) in the first arm (1) to detonate and make the fluid (5) to spill over the article and make it unusable.

The second arm (2) contains a source of cur¬ rent supply (8) with three functions: a) to supply the release mechanism (7) in the first arm (1) with the energy needed to make

possible the detonation of the glass/plastic ampoule (6) in the first arm (1); b) to see to it that when the clip is in a locked position, a closed circuit (23) is formed and when this is unduly broken, make possible a detonation of the glass/plastic ampoule in the first arm

(1) via the release mechanism (7); c) to supply the indicator (25) in the second arm

(2) with enough energy to produce an obvious indication in order to make the staff aware that the source of current supply (8) is approa¬ ching the lowest acceptable level of energy that will safeguard the energy dependent func¬ tions of the alarm.

The closed circuit (23) can only be broken in an approved manner by using an opening tool which is individualised for each store.

The second arm (2) is exchangeable so that when an indication of low energy level has been registered from the indicator (25), a new second arm (2) with maximum energy level can be connected to the first arm (1) and thereby set the first one (1) working again.

The first arm (1) contains a receiver (9) whi¬ ch allows it to respond to an external coded signal (10).

The purpose of making the external signal (10) possible to code, and also making it possible to use different codes for different users, is to decrease the risk that a thief may disturb the external signal (10).

Figure 2 shows an outline of principle of the shop environment in which the device, for whi¬ ch patent is applied for, is to be used.

The signal (10) is conducted from a "radio- loop" (11) positioned at the shop exit (17) that is to be guarded. When the thief (12) passes by the "radio-loop" (11) with a stolen item (3) the signal (10) is registered by the receiver (9) in the device (14) which reacts by transforming the signal (10) to initiating start energy (15) for the release mechanism (7) which causes the fluid capsule (6) to detonate and spread the fluid through the holes (16) in the two arms of the device (1,2) so that the fluid spills over the garment.

On the way towards the exit (17) an early warn¬ ing system (26) gives a warning signal (27) aim¬ ed at attracting attention to the attempted the¬ ft or t o a possible false alarm under way. The purpose of this early warning system is to prevent unnecessary destruction of goods.