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Folks who park their cars illegally in NYC will no longer have to deal with those famous boots that lock your vehicle's wheels: the NYPD has just launched a new pilot program that involves the use of a plastic yellow box that gets suctioned to the windshield, making it impossible to see while driving.
Aptly dubbed the Barnacle after the marine crustacean that quite literally attaches itself to rocks, ships and other animals as it grows, the tool is already in use around Queens and will soon expand to the rest of the city.
According to CBS News, one Colin J. Heffron St., the executive chairman of Barnacle Parking, actually "invented the device with a friend after getting one too many boots on his car."
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The Barnacle sounds like a pretty nifty creation in terms of usage. Officials simply have to unfold it, place it on a car's windshield and wait for the two giant suction cups to adhere to the glass through a self-contained pump.
The pros: it takes the NYPD less than a minute to install each Barnacle, a big time saver compared to the up-to-three-minutes that setting up a traditional boot require. The device also boasts GPS technology so officials will always know where the products are and, according to NBC4, an alarm sounds whenever someone tries to remove the object from the windshield.
It's also important to note that, unlike getting booted, which usually requires your car to be towed, getting "Barnacle-d" is a relatively easy situation to solve: the driver can scan the QR code that is plastered on the device, input his or her license plate, pay the $185 fine and then punch in the given code to release the Barnacle. The tool can be folded up and will then have to be dropped off to whatever address the guidelines will provide one with.
There are some cons to keep in mind, though. Turns out that New Yorkers with a flair for the very dangerous have attempted driving away with the Barnacle still suctioned to their windshield, for example. How... very New York of them.