Whizzinator
The Original Whizzinator is a product intended to fraudulently defeat drug tests. The Whizzinator comes as a kit complete with dried urine and syringe, heater packs (to keep the urine at body temperature), a false penis (available in several skin tones including white, tan, latino, brown, and black) and instruction manual. The company has recently begun offering a 'female version' [1] of the Whizzinator as well. Though there is no information on exactly how this product differs from the 'disposable unisex' product also on the market. It is manufactured by Puck Technology of Signal Hill, California; a suburb of Los Angeles.
The device received media coverage in May 2005 in the United States after Onterrio Smith, a Former Minnesota Vikings running back, was caught with one at the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport, which resulted in his suspension. Actor Tom Sizemore has also brought the Whizzinator into the public eye after having been caught with one attempting to evade drug tests.
In 2006, a Pittsburgh-area woman and her friend were charged with disorderly conduct and criminal mischief after they asked a convenience store clerk to microwave one of the devices so the woman could pass a drug test. The clerk, thinking it was a real penis, called police. The couple were required to reimburse the chain for the cost of a new microwave; OSHA regulations do not allow microwaves to be used once bodily fluids have been in them.
The United States Congress held hearings on the Whizzinator on May 17, 2005.
Possible inspiration for the Whizzinator
A device to deliver 'unadulterated child's piss' is used by a drunken Withnail in the 1987 film Withnail and I in an attempt to escape a police alcohol test. However, it is discovered when the police notice him fumbling with a rubber tube.
Federal fraud case
On October 14, federal prosecutors in Pittsburgh won a 19-count indictment against the owners of Puck Technology, maker of the Whizzinator, for fraud and selling drug paraphernalia.[2] Prosecutors allege that by manufacturing and selling the Whizzinator, company president Gerald Wills and vice president Robert Catalano conspired to defraud the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, which administers federal workplace drug testing programs. The government is seeking forfeiture of all of the company's assets, including its Internet domain names. According to the BBC, Wills and Catalano pleaded guilty to two charges of conspiracy before a federal court in Pittsburgh, and are scheduled to be sentenced in February 2009. They could face up to eight years in prison and a $500,000 fine. [3]
The company's Websites, whizzinator.com and gonumber1.com, were no longer live as of November 2008.
TWO men who sold fake penises enabling drug cheats to give clean urine samples have pleaded guilty to conspiracy.
Gerald Wills and Robert Catalano, the president and vice president of Puck Technology, entered guilty pleas on Monday at a federal court in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
They were charged last month with selling the Whizzinator penis - a lifelike device used to emit clean, realistically warm urine instead of the user's true urine. The device, sold on the internet, came with its own heating and Yellow River urine packs.
It was also available in several skin tones including white, tan, latino, brown, and black.
Wills, 65, and Catalano, 62, both from California, face sentencing on February 20 for conspiring to defraud the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, which administers federal workplace drug testing programs.
They face up to eight years in prison and a $US500,000 ($770,000) fine.
Puck Technology has stopped operating and their websites, whizzinator.com and gonumber1.com, are no longer available.
External links
- Whizzinator Fake Penis
- The Whizzinator: A House Panel's No. 1 Priority, The Washington Post, May 18, 2005.
- ^ Number One
- ^ Cato, Jason. Buchanan takes on drug-test cheaters. Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, 2008-10-15.
- ^ [1]. BBC News, 2008-11-25.