Cell phone case that doubles as stun gun an online success

Yellow Jacket, the stun gun that wraps around iPhones as a protective case, is garnering national attention while reaching 900 presale orders before online purchasing ends at midnight tonight. Yellow Jacket will debut for full retail sale in October at $125 or more, but the local company (of the same name) behind its creation has offered a limited 1,000-unit presale of the case for $100 per unit on the crowdsource fundraising website indiegogo.com. Yellow Jacket is less than $10,000 short of its presale goal of $100,000. Company co-founder Sean Simone says the success of Yellow Jacket’s fundraising effort is reflected in its ranking in the top 10 of roughly 15,000 startups featured on indie-gogo’s website. Simone and inventor Seth Froom, both Baton Rouge residents, completed their first prototype in April, working at the Louisiana Business & Technology Center. Their unique product has already caught the attention of national and international media, including CNN, The Huffington Post, Forbes and The Guardian. “Locally and even nationally there have been a lot of recent events that heighten awareness of personal safety,” Simone says. “So I guess it has been sort of a case of right place, right time.” The case is available for only iPhone 4 models, but Yellow Jacket plans to roll out cases for certain popular Android phones in January. “We’ve gotten calls and emails from the Philippines, Brazil, the U.K., all over Europe asking about it,” Simone says. “The reception has been great.” The case is capable of delivering a 650,000-volt charge to thwart would-be attackers and serves as an extra battery to deliver a full charge to iPhones. —Frederick Holl