Purse Theft Alarm

Abstract

An audible alarm constituting a part of a lady's purse and so consttucted that a sudden pull or jerking force exerted on the purse handle will cause the alarm to be actuated. The alarm unit is so constructed that it will continue to operate until a part of the unit is dismantled to effect a deactivation of the alarm.

Description

SUMMARY

It is a primary object of the present invention to provide an alarm unit which may be built into a lady's purse for automatically producing an audible alarm in response to a sudden pull or jerking force exerted on the purse handle or carrying strap, such as would occur if a thief attempted to snatch the purse from its owner.

Another object of the invention is to provide an alarm unit which, once activated, will continue to operate until a part of the unit is dismantaled, so that if a thief succeeds in snatching the purse from its owner the audible alarm will continue to function to guide police or other pursuers following the thief.

Another object of the invention is to provide a purse alarm which may be utilized by the owner to sound an alarm in the event she is in danger of being attacked, for calling help and/or for frightening away a would-be-attacker.

Various other objects and advantages of the invention will hereinafter become more fully apparent from the following description of the drawings, illustrating a presently preferred embodiment thereof, and wherein:

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a side elevational view, partly broken away, showing a lady's purse equipped with the alarm;

FIG. 2 is a horizontal sectional view, taken substantially along a plane as indicated by the line 2--2 of FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is an enlarged fragmentary vertical sectional view taken along a plane as indicated by the line 3--3 of FIG. 2;

FIG. 4 is an enlarged fragmentary vertical sectional view taken substantially along a plane as indicated by the line 4--4 of FIG. 1;

FIG. 5 is a view similar to FIG. 3 but illustrating a different position of certain of the parts, and

FIG. 6 is a diagrammatic view illustrating the electric circuit of the alarm.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT

Referring more specifically to the drawings, a lady's purse of a conventional type, designated generally 8; is illustrated in FIGS. 1 and 2, and is shown equipped with the alarm, designated generally 9.

The body 10 of the purse 8 may be formed of any flexible material such as leather, cloth or plastic, as is conventional, and is supported by two arched-shaped substantially rigid frame members 11 and 12 in a conventional manner. The terminals of the frame members 11 and 12 are pivotally connected as seen at 13, in a manner conventional for ladies' purses, so that when a latch 14 is released the frame members 11 and 12 may be swung apart to afford access to the contents of the purse body 10.

The alarm 9 includes a conventional dry cell battery or other suitable self-contained current source 15, an audible alarm 16, such as a horn or siren, two corresponding electric switches 17 and 18, and electrical wiring, which will hereinafter be described, connecting both switches to the current source 15 and to the alarm 16.

As seen in FIGS. 2 and 4, the switch 17 is secured to and supported on the underside of the member 11 and the switch 18 is supported on the underside of the member 12. Each switch includes a body 20 of electrical insulating material having an upwardly opening threaded bore 21 to receive a fastening screw 22 which extends downwardly through the frame member 11 or 12 by which said switch is supported, for securing the switch to the underside thereof. Each switch body 20 has a central bore 23 extending vertically therethrough and aligning with a bore 24 which extends vertically through the member 11 or 12, to which said body 20 is secured. A rod 25 extends through and is slidably mounted in the aligned bores 23 and 24 and has a head 26 at its lower end which is formed of electrical conducting material and which is disposed below the body 20.

The exposed upper end of each rod 25 has a transverse opening 27 extending therethrough to receive a ring 28. In the embodiment as illustrated, a handle in the form of a flexible carrying strap 29 has its ends connected to the rings 28.

Each rod 25 has a restricted annular portion 29 which is concavely arced when viewed in side elevation, as seen in FIGS. 3 and 5, and a restricted portion 30 disposed beneath the portion 29 and which defines an annular downwardly facing shoulder 31.

Each body 20 has a longitudinal bore 32, an inner end of which opens into the bore 23 and an outer end of which opens through one end of the body 20. Said outer end portion is internally threaded, as seen at 33. The bores 21 and 32 are disposed on opposite sides of the bore 23. A detent 34 in the form of a pin is mounted for sliding movement in the inner end of the bore 32 and has a rounded forward end 35 which normally seats in the restricted rod portion 29, as seen in FIG. 3. The other rear end of the detent 34 constitutes a restricted stem 36 which engages in one end of a coiled compression spring 37. A screw 38 is adjustably threaded into the bore portion 33 and has an inwardly extending restricted stem 39 which engages the other end of the spring 37, for supporting the spring in the bore 32 between the detent 34 and screw 38. The stems 36 and 39 are sized to have frictional engagement with the end convolutions of the spring 37, so that when the screw 38 is removed from the bore portion 33 the spring 37 and detent 34 will be removed therewith.

Headed screws 40 engage in threaded sockets 41 which open outwardly of the bottom of each body 20, adjacent its ends. The screws 40 support conductor strips 42 and 43. The adjacent ends of the strips 42 and 43 straddle and are spaced from the rod 25. When the detent 34 is in engagement with the recessed rod portion 29, the head 26 is spaced from the strips 42 and 43. However, when the rod 25 is displaced upwardly so that the detent 34 engages the recess rod portion 30, as seen in FIG. 5, the head 26 contacts the adjacent ends of the two conductor strips 42 and 43, to form a conductor bridge between said conductor strips.

A conductor 44, as seen in FIG. 6, is connected to the conductor 42 of the switch 17 and to the positive terminal of the battery 15. A conductor 45 is connected to the conductor 42 of the switch 18 and to the conductor 44 so that both contact strips 42 are connected to the positive terminal of the battery 15. A conductor 46 leads from the conductor 43 of the switch 18 to one terminal or post of the audible alarm 16, and a conductor 47 connects the strip 43 of switch 17 to the conductor 46. A conductor 48 connects the other terminal or post of the alarm 16 to the negative terminal of the battery 15 to complete the electric circuit.

Thus, it will be seen that when the rod 25 of either switch 17 or 18 is displaced upwardly to its position of FIG. 5, by a sudden pull on the rod sufficient to cam the detent 34 out of the recess 29, the head 26 of said rod will complete the circuit of FIG. 6 by bridging the contacts 42 and 43 of said switch for causing the audible alarm to be sounded continuously until the fastening 38 of said switch is removed for removing the detent 34, so that the rod 25 can be displaced downwardly from its position of FIG. 5, toward its position of FIG. 3, sufficiently to move the head 26 out of engagement with the conductors 42 and 43. This cannot be accomplished without removing the fastening 38 since the detent 34 by engagement with the annular shoulder 31 will prevent the rod 25 from being displaced downwardly sufficiently to disengage the head 26 from the conductor strips 42 and 43.

Thus, if a sudden pull or jerking force is exerted on the strap 29, as by someone attempting to snatch the purse 8 from its owner, one or both of the rods 25 will be moved from its position of FIG. 3 to its position of FIG. 5, for activating the horn or siren 16. The screw 38 can be adjusted in the bore portion 33 to vary the tension of the spring 37 and the amount of pulling force required to cam the detent 34 out of the recess 29, so that rod 25 can move from its position of FIG. 3 to its position of FIG. 5.

As illustrated in FIG. 1, the battery 15 and signal 16 are preferably disposed in the bottom of the purse 8 beneath a false bottom 49. The false bottom 49 may be provided with a zipper or other closure 50 to afford access to the battery and signal. A bottom part of the body portion 10 may include a portion of open work construction, as seen at 51 of FIG. 1, beneath the signal 16, through which the sound produced by the signal 16 will escape from the purse 8 without being muffled.

Various modifications and changes are contemplated and may be resorted to without departing from the function or scope of the invention.

Claims

I claim as my invention:

1. A lady's purse including a flexible carrying handle, an alarm unit carried by the purse including an electric current source and an electrically activated audible alarm, an electric circuit connecting the current source to the alarm, a normally open electric switch attached to the purse and interposed in the electric circuit, said switch including a part connected to an end of the carrying handle, said switch part being responsive to a sudden jerking or pulling force exerted on said handle end in a direction away from the purse for moving the switch to a circuit closing position whereby the audible alarm will be energized, said switch including detent means resisting movement of said part from a circuit interrupting to a circuit closing position, said switch part including a portion engaged by the detent means when the switch is in a circuit closing position to prevent movement of said switch part back to a circuit interrupting position without removal of the detent means from the switch.

2. A purse as in claim 1, and means for adjusting said detent means for varying the amount of pull required to move the switch from a circuit interrupting to a circuit closing position.

3. A purse as in claim 1, a second switch, corresponding to the first mentioned switch, attached to the purse and having a part connected to the other end of the purse handle, said second switch being interposed in said electric circuit in a manner whereby when either switch is moved to a circuit closing position the audible signal will be energized.

4. A purse as in claim 1, said purse having a false bottom defining a concealed compartment containing the current source and audible signal.

5. A purse as in claim 1, said purse having a portion of open work construction located adjacent the audible signal to permit egress from the purse of the sounds emitted by the signal.