Outside the Box Thinking: The Anti-Bandit Briefcase

At its core, the expression “outside-the-box thinking” refers to ideas that break out of the bounds of convention. This series features innovations that, somehow or another, do just that. In the case of today’s featured example of inventiveness, quite literally.

Imagine you are carrying a briefcase as you walk in a public setting. The briefcase contains very important documents and valuable objects. Now imagine you’ve just realized that you’re being followed by a shady character, who will soon make their move to take that briefcase and all its contents away from you. How will you keep from becoming just another robbery statistic? Better still, how will you avoid becoming the victim of an assault in the process?

Although it was never patented, inventor John H.T. Rinfret came up with a unique invention to address the problem of being robbed by thieves seeking to acquire briefcases and their valuable contents. Here’s the story of his innovative “anti-bandit bag” from Atlas Obscura:

In 1963, The Manager and other publications described a spinoff—the Pug anti-bandit bag—that, rather than smoke, ejected the contents of a bag once a thief grabbed it.

Invented by John H. T. Rinfret, who was purportedly a frequent target of robberies, the Pug anti-bandit bag featured a spring attached to the handle. If a thief tried to steal the bag, the courier needed only to crook their thumb, and the bag flew open, its contents spewing everywhere. Presumably, this would frighten away the robber, and the day would be saved.

Necessity, as they say, is the mother of invention and by this account, Rinfret truly had the need. The following video shows how his innovation, the Pug Anti-Bandit Bag, worked in action after its proverbial panic button was pressed:

Alas, Rinfret’s innovation never reached the marketplace. Weird Universe theorizes why not:

From what I can gather, Rinfret hoped to rent his anti-bandit bags to companies that used couriers to carry important documents or money. He definitely put a lot of work into promoting his invention. He even came out with a new and improved version of the bag the following year. But evidently few companies were interested in using his bag.

Possible reasons why: 1) a bandit might pick up the money instead of running away; or 2) what if the spring was activated by accident, spraying money everywhere?

If you’ve ever had to pick up the contents of a briefcase or suitcase that wasn’t securely closed and came open, dumping its contents on the ground, you well understand why Rinfret’s anti-bandit briefcase never caught on. Even if it worked exactly as intended, you would be guaranteed to still have a mess to clean up. A mess that you could expect to have to deal with far more often than you might ever have your briefcase attempted to be stolen from you.

In that sense, it was too outside-the-box to be successful.