STORY AND PHOTOS BY KAREN BOSSICK
Jeff Crandall’s hiking staff does more than steady him as he makes his way down a slope of scree.
The staff, which is adjustable and shock absorbent, contains a flashlight in the handle that can be useful if he ends up on the trail after dark. And, when activated, it delivers 950,000 volts of shock and noise like that of a machine gun should he encounter an aggressive critter.
The Hike ‘n Strike Hiking Staff is one of dozens of personal defense products that Crandall promotes at his online store he developed years ago at www.peppersprayandstunguns.com.The same patented devices are also carried by the largest sporting goods stores in the world, including Cabela’s, Bass Pro Shops and Big 5 Sporting Goods, and locally by such businesses as F-Stop in Ketchum.
Some of the other personal defense products in his quiver include stun gun flashlights that can stun someone with million volts if needed, blast knuckles capable of delivering 950,000 volts, a Stun Cane with flashlight and pepper spray embedded into a retractable dog leash, lipstick canister or pen.
There’s a self-defense key chain, a Snakebite 20,000 Volt Stun Gun and safes that look like clocks, books and Coca Cola cans, in which one can hide a handgun or other weapons. One flashlight stun device even has a Bluetooth app that alerts people if the gun goes off, showing the location of the device.
That's a first in the industry.
“We’re the Mercedes-Benz when it comes to the quality of our products,” said Crandall, CEO of Personal Defense Products LLC. “Dan Haggerty, who played Grizzly Adams—he’s even endorsed our products.”
A former law enforcement officer, Crandall says he knows the value of good protection. But he prefers non-lethal protection—the kind that comes without bullets that could kill or maim someone.
“In my profession I carried a gun for 25-plus years—it was like a carpenter carrying a hammer. But I never had to fire it, even though I was shot at,” he said."Just because you can doesn't always mean you should."
“I’m a big proponent of whatever’s less lethal. I feel a gun should be the last option because it is a deadly force option. These are alternatives so people don’t have to pull out a handgun and fire it.”
The stun gun, for instance, sounds like a machine gun when it goes off, which may be enough to scare some away. The 1.5 million volts it’s capable of delivering will cause someone to recoil.
“It’ll make them fall down and it’ll take them more than a minute to begin recovering, which gives the person using the device time to get away. It can leave a huge red welt, even through a heavy coat,” Crandall said.
One of Crandall’s personal favorites is a noiseless pepper spray gun. It looks like a firearm but shoots a glob of pepper spray at 400 miles per hour. The glob stays together until it hits something, then splatters, turning the object it hit red.
“A red laser dot shows the shooter what they’re going to hit,” he said. “It burns and makes you feel as if you’re on fire. You nose and eyes will run profusely, and this lasts between 48 minutes and an hour. Even if you got it on your chest, it would splatter on your face. It looks and feels like a gun but you can take it anywhere because it doesn’t require registration.”
Police are starting to use the pepper spray guns because their tasers don’t always work, Crandall said.
“My taser failed me half the time. It’s a much better way for a police officer to stop something like a dog fight than to use a bullet because a bullet could ricochet off a sidewalk and hit a child.”
Crandall grew up in the Bay Area where he became one of the youngest to graduate from the Police Officer Standards and Training Academy. He served as a reserve police officer and investigator, in addition to touring briefly with a Scandinavian band and working as a broker and jeweler.
He fell in love with Sun Valley as an early age, having spent summers in the Sawtooth Valley as a child. And he swore he would move here if he ever got the chance.
“I was smitten with the beauty, the peacefulness,” he said.
Crandall found his calling—and the means to live in the valley--when his paths crossed with the man who began inventing these personal protection devices in his garage in 1990.
“There was a news anchor women who was attacked and murdered in her apartment in Little Rock, Ark. She had no defense. If she had, maybe she would be alive today,” Crandall recounted. “My wife had one of these stun guns so I ran the man who patented them down at a trade show. Now I set up retail and wholesale sales—I really believe in these.”
Crandall says products could be useful in dealing with coyotes or cougars that frequent the Wood River Valley.
“A friend of mine was hunting wolves and found himself stalked by a cougar. We’ve had Moms and their children stalked by cougars as they’ve walked their kids to town. And not too long ago a 15-year-old caught a cougar stalking him in his own backyard. We’re not the highest on the pecking order on the food chain in this beautiful place. With new technology available, people can take advantage of less-than-lethal devices like mine for their personal protection without necessarily having to resort to a bullet. Better to have it than have nothing and be defenseless from four-legged predators, not to mention the two-legged ones."
WANT TO LEARN MORE?
Go to http://www.peppersprayandstunguns.com/. Or, call 208-721-7981.