What Is The Barnacle?
The Barnacle is a windshield boot and the parking authority’s latest tactic for immobilizing vehicles with excessive violations. This is used instead of the traditional boot that used to be placed around one’s tire. It doesn’t actually render the car unable to drive like a traditional wheel boot. Instead, it covers the windshield so that the driver isn’t able to see out. Like a traditional boot, this is not something that would be applied do to a small parking violation or fine. Rather is something that is used with chronic offenders.
How Does The Barnacle Work?
- Parking Enforcement unfolds the windshield boot and lays it over the offender’s windshield
- When activated via keypad two large electric suction cups, one on each side of the barnacle, latch onto the windshield with around 1,000 pounds of force
- A ring around the windshield boot protects it from people trying to get underneath it to pry it off
- Motorists can pay a fee online or over the phone and a wireless signal will be sent to the barnacle within minutes. This deactivates the suction cups allowing it to be removed from the windshield
- Once removed the motorist will take the barnacle to a nearby drop-off location within 24 hours
- If the person tries to drive the vehicle with the barnacle still attached an alarm will go off and a GPS tracker on the barnacle will activate. This GPS signal will alert the police to your exact location.
Advantages for Parking Enforcement
- The Barnacle is small and easy to carry inside any vehicle unlike a convention wheel boot
- It is lightweight, weighing under 20 pounds so it can be applied to the vehicle by anyone, requiring very little strength to do so
- This windshield boot can be applied much faster than a conventional wheel boot, saving officers time
- The barnacle can be removed within minutes by the owner. This keeps an officer from having to come remove it personally, saving both time and gas
- The barnacle is less likely to do damage to the vehicle when it is applied
- If the owner decides to neglect the vehicle, unlike with a traditional boot, the vehicle can easily be towed away.
Advantages for the Owner of the Vehicle
- The barnacle is less likely to harm your vehicle during application and removal
- It comes with an app that allows you to pay your fine easily on the spot
- It can be removed in a matter of minutes allowing you to get on with your day quickly
- They give you 24 hours after removal to drop off the barnacle. Allowing you to get straight to where you need to go and worry about dropping it off after.
How People Are Trying to Get Around These Boots
Driver Side Window
Some people are attempting to stick their heads out of the window of the car and trying to drive without needing to look through the now blocked windshield. Unfortunately for them, as soon as the vehicle begins to move an alarm goes off and a built-in GPS activates and sends your exact location to the police.
Pry Bar
Often people attempt to pry the barnacle off of their windshield by trying to stick something like a pry bar underneath the barnacle to unseal the suction cups. This doesn’t often work because a protective ring around the barnacle keeps items from being able to slide underneath it. And at around 1,000 pounds of holding force, you are more likely to just break your windshield.
Kick out the Windshield
Occasionally chronic offenders will think that it is cheaper to replace the windshield than it is to pay their fines. In this case, they will try to just remove the entire windshield. If you really wanted to do this though hitting it with a glass breaker first might make things a bit easier.
Drill
People have been reported attempting to drill into the barnacle. Hoping to create a hole in the suction cup, releasing the vacuum and its seal. The problem is although this may work you have destroyed a very expensive device and will now owe that fine as well as your others.
How People are Successfully Removing The Barnacle
Although some of these methods have been touted to work against the barnacle we do not suggest using them as doing so is illegal. This article is purely informational. Pay your fines and obey the law.
The Defroster
As necessity is the mother of the invention some ingenious college students figured out that if you turn on your car’s defroster for about 15 minutes you will be able to get underneath the barnacle’s protective outer seal. Then by slipping a thin rigid piece of plastic like a credit card under the seal you can break the suction cups vacuum and remove the barnacle.
Tinfoil
Placing tin foil over the barnacle is said to be enough to disrupt the radio and GPS signal on the device. When the signal is blocked the device will automatically deactivate allowing you to remove the windshield boot.
Funny Barnacle Revenge Stories
One exceptionally bright victim of the barnacle decided that after removal he would take revenge on the device. The barnacle uses a SIM card to power its GPS system. When the user found this out he hacked into the SIM card and tethered it to his phone. When doing so he found out that the SIM card was registered under an unlimited data plan. Giving him months of free cellular service before he was caught.