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Homemade Robot Patrols Atlanta Streets

Posted by Soulskill on from the serving-justice-and-delicious-hot-dogs dept.

Josh Fink brings news of an Atlanta resident who has created a remote control robot to scare off criminals during the night. Rufus Terrill, an engineer, uses it to patrol the streets and encourage drug dealers and other shady characters to move on. Local residents call it his "Robocop." From CNN: "It's a barbecue smoker mounted on a three-wheeled scooter, and armed with an infrared camera, spotlight, loudspeaker and aluminum water cannon that shoots a stream of icy water about 20 feet. Operated by remote control, the robot spotlights trespassers on property down the street from his bar, O'Terrill's. Using a walkie-talkie, Terrill belts out through the robot's loudspeaker, 'That's private property. You guys need to get out of here.'"

3 of 324 comments (clear)

  1. Assault by odin84gk · · Score: 4, Informative
    From the article

    Police Major Lane Hagin says ... "There's no problem with the robot going up and down the street or being visible or any of the other things it does -- with the exception of spraying water on people." Hagin adds, "Then, it becomes an assault no matter where it happens." :-(
    1. Re:Assault by RockModeNick · · Score: 4, Informative

      Sadly you CAN'T hit back if someone hits you 95% of the time. Unless they have you physically trapped so you cannot escape the situation, or are defending a threat on your own property (so forget defending your car in a parking lot) if you hit back and do substantially more damage with that hit that they did(you have a bruise on the arm, he has a shattered jaw) you are definately getting charges filed by the police if the incident gets to them. If neither of you is hurt bad it's probably just disturbing the peace charges for both of you. Only big exception on hitting someone when not trapped or on your own property and they assault you is defense of another - if guy is decking his GF(or bf I guess) at a bar and you decide to knock him out before he does real damage, you're probably not getting in trouble so long as the victim you defend corroborates your story.

  2. Re:NIce by bodino · · Score: 4, Informative

    The trouble with a sprinkler system is that Atlanta is in severe drought