At the most recent ELEX show in Coventry, PE spoke to the man making headlines taking a stand against tool theft with his electrified contraption.
Ray Taylor is a 61-year-old electrician from Wolverhampton and, through the years he has spent working in the industry, he has been the victim of over ยฃ5,000 worth of tool theft.
It is hard to maintain a passion and motivation for your work when such brazen acts are often left unpunished, a passion that for many in the industry has been life-long.
This is no different for Ray, as he recounts his first steps towards his electrical career: โSince I was 10, I used to fix my neighbourโs or my family friendsโ hoovers, stuff like that. I was always playing with wires, playing about with my mumโs electrics. Iโve always been fascinated by it.โ
It is this same child-like sense of adventure that led Ray to construct an alarm for his van. In the video below, Paul Meenan and John Ward from the e5 Group chat to Ray outside ELEX Coventry about his van:
Rayโs contraption consists of a 1,000V zapper from a fly swatter, which is fitted to a metal plate in the rear door handle of his van, meaning the shock is only isolated to the handle.
The siren, sound bombs, zapper and a blue strobe light are on the same circuit which is fitted to a switch in the cabin.
This switch is connected to the rear door key so that, when the van is locked and someone tries to pull at the handle, it will then activate. A selection of sensors fitted to all the vanโs doors will also trigger the circuit.
There were two separate incidents that led Ray to the point where he felt he had to fight back against tool theft. โI had a car with tools worth around ยฃ2,000. I woke up one day and not only the tools but my car had gone โ itโs never been seen since,โ he says.
โThen, in January of this year, I had almost ยฃ3,000 worth of tools taken. They robbed me of my livelihood.โ
Crucially, thereโs nothing illegal about Rayโs invention. Police have confirmed that, as long as Ray continues to display a yellow warning sign under the handle that states โDanger Live Terminalsโ, heโs doing nothing wrong.
The โshockโ that greets any potential thieves isnโt even the major deterrent as, according to Ray, the flashing blue light is what draws attention.
He says: โJust think about it: itโs three oโclock in the morning and a flashing blue light is going off. Iโve got footage of every attempt, and they all ran. There have been three attempts since I installed the system, and every single one of them has run away.โ
But what is the main goal of all of this? Ray just hopes to inspire people to alarm their vans properly, thereby protecting their livelihoods.
He pleads: โJust arm your vans. There are alarms out there that cost hundreds of pounds too, but they can easily trip by accident.
โIf you hear my alarm go off, there is somebody attempting to get into my van, 100%. Itโs stable and Iโve covered everything off that I possibly can.โ
Our next ELEX show will take place at Alexandra Palace, London, on January 29th-30th. To register for FREE, visit: https://elexshow.info/register/.
