Half a croissant, on a plate, with a sign in front of it saying '50c'
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Polite Cuff Robot Tar Baby

non-cartoonish violence is always avoidable
  (+5, -1)
(+5, -1)
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Take a bumbling little nonthreatening robot on treads, looking somewhat like a six-inch tall Johnny Five. It rolls slowly forward until it contacts a wall, then mumbles "excuse me" and rotates 130 degrees and continues.

It has an inviting looking handle on top. When a curiosity-driven person picks it up by the handle to examine it, a spring-loaded handcuff clamps around their wrist. When the bottom of the robot is grasped and pulled in an attempt to dislodge it from one wrist, it clamps onto the other one. A mild electric shock prevents the nerves leading to the hands from functioning properly, causing the end-user to drop whatever s/he is holding. A siren sounds to signal completion of the mission.

Designed to be fired en masse through the windows of a building like tear gas canisters. For use in hostage situations, lone gunmen holed up in buildings, etc.

GutPunchLullabies, Sep 01 2006

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       I haven't entirely understood the reasoning behind this - it immobilises and shocks people that are nothing more than curious?
fridge duck, Sep 01 2006
  

       If you really want this to work, I think you're going to have to use a foamy, gluelike substance instead of handcuffs. The handcuffs have too much of a chance of missing the wrist entirely.   

       In fact, you could make it a ball that explodes into a big ball of gunk when the ball senses it being handled. Cleverly disguise it as a teargas bomb so the perps try to throw it back out the window and BLAMO! caught like a perp on the end of an exploding foam ball.
NotTheSharpestSpoon, Sep 01 2006
  

       Foamy glue will end badly when Senor A. Desperado tries to gnaw it off his hands and suffocates himself.
GutPunchLullabies, Sep 01 2006
  

       Your point being...?
NotTheSharpestSpoon, Sep 01 2006
  

       needs a better name, and a few details tidied up - but idea appeals to me in principal. +
xenzag, Sep 01 2006
  

       This is really stupid. I like it a lot. It needs something to reduce the anxiety of the gripped, though. Maybe it will let out some mechanised demonic laughter after the siren and then let go. I can see it getting smashed at this point.
jmvw, Sep 02 2006
  

       [spoon], how about an exploding ball of custard? When the perps go to the men's room to wash the stuff off, the evil laugh activated hand dryers actually trigger a special heat-activated, non-water-soluble glue that's mixed in with the custard. As quick as you can say mwa-ha-ha, the perps hands are stuck fast together.
Canuck, Sep 03 2006
  

       I like the part where the lone gunman, hands trapped in the bot, backs into another bot he had not realized was there. The cuffs deploy.
bungston, Oct 03 2016
  
      
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