Japanese College Student Invented Birds' Dropping Seal to Drive Bike Thieves Away

An Italian cinema masterpiece "Ladri di Biciclette" (The Bicycle Thief) by Vittorio De Sica is unforgettable for its painful ending scene of Antonio, the father, fighting back his tears of shame with his son, Bruno, holding his hand - the camera following from behind as they fade walking into the crowd. Antonio had his hard-earned bicycle stolen.

The details aside, the film leaves you with a painful remorse: "If only had he not his bike stolen..." Now, back to reality, here's an episode of how one's mind works to protect your bicycle.

An ingenious item hit the market on April 1 (of all days...) - a cool idea to drive bike thieves away, rather discourage them away. It's an anti-theft seal of "Bird's Dropping".

An idea flashed in a graduate college student's mind one day that a bike thief would hesitate for a second to pedal away a bike if he saw a bird's dropping splashed on the saddle. The idea won a "Zakka Awards (Sundries Prize)" and was eventually made into a cool piece of commodity - Bird's Dropping Seal.

The witty college student, Reoga Motoki of Chiba Institute of Technology graduate school, said he was inspired by his own obnoxious experience of one day finding his bike stained by birds' dropping on the saddle. "I've thought of various ways of actually substantiating the idea and I finally settle on the seal", recalls Motoki. By way of improving his product, Motoki is pondering over whether or not to make the seal "stink".

A plan is underway to export the seal to Europe where bicycles are popular and used more extensively.
Now, the point is what if bike thieves have learned what it is and what it really isn't. Well, it's entirely a matter of opinion. So is the speculation whether or not Antonio could have saved his bike with a piece of seal.

News Souce: Withnews