Bullet-proof cases over the counter

Press, 6 January 1987, Page 2

Bullet-proof cases over the counter

NZPA-AP Miami There is a new store where you can outfit -yourself like the fictional super-spy, James Bond, with the latest in countersurveillance equipment, night-vision gear and antikidnapping and tracking devices.

Spy Shops International Inc, opened recently, attracting about 30 customers. Its owner, John Demeter, a Canadian, said a group of Israelis came from New York and several clients were from South America and Europe.

Mr Demeter, aged 40, was an international security consultant for more than 10 years. He said he decided to use his expertise to help people worried about unstable conditions in the world and came up with the shop of security products. “People are worried about personal security

and, lately, terrorists,” he said at the opening.

A hand-held stun gun is priced at SUSSB ($NZ112.23). It can jolt an assailant with 70,000 volts of electricity. It is not to kill, Mr Demeter said, but to “just immobilise an attacker.”

There are telephone scramblers and equipment designed to detect bugs, phone taps and wireless microphones. They sell for thousands of dollars each.

For corporate executives or statesmen, there is a bullet-proof briefcase and an anti-kidnapping device with a transmitter that can be sewn into a belt or coat to track someone by air within a 40km range.

Special customers get “back-room” treatment. They can buy sophisticated, high-tech equipment costing up to $U525,000 ($48,375). For ground transport,

Mr Demeter can equip cars with custom-designed anti-terrorist packages that include a computerised tracking system to locate a vehicle in case of kidnapping and a mechanism for releasing tacks from the rear to flatten pursuers’ tires.

The items are either custom-made or purchased in Europe, he said. Mr Demeter, who said he does security work for Saudi Arabia, Lebanon, Panama and the United States, pointed out that most of the equipment he sells requires State Department approval to export, and that federal statutes prohibit the surreptitious use of listening devices. He said he will do a background check on anyone who makes a large purchase. “I really screen them,” he said. “No terrorists and only approved Governments.”