NZ invention goes like stink in LA crimefighting

By SCOTT MacLEOD

Los Angeles police armed with a smelly New Zealand cream have formed a "skunk squad" to drive criminals from their favourite haunts.

The sheriffs have forced drug-dealers, prostitutes and arsonists from derelict buildings and a motorway underpass using SkunkShot, a fetid ointment they bought over the internet from Victoria University.

The squad is the brainchild of Lieutenant Shaun Mathers and Deputy Scott Gage, who were frustrated at having to round up criminals from the same venues.

The pair found SkunkShot on the internet and ordered it from Wellington. They smeared it on the furniture in an abandoned hotel where 30 arrests had been made in just two weeks.

The officers returned twice to find the building empty, and told their superiors that SkunkShot "was able to do what fences, gates and barbed wire was unable to do".

Sheriff Lee Baca told the Los Angeles Times he was impressed at the work of the skunk squad.

"Crime, in and of itself, is a nasty odour," he said.

SkunkShot was the idea of Andrew Rakich, a scientist who spent five years with Victoria University scientists trying to mimic the smell of a skunk with chemicals. The team ended up with a product being sold to gardeners as a cat and dog repellent.

Mr Rakich said Mr Gage sent him an email saying SkunkShot was "spectacular" and that he wanted $850 worth. But Mr Gage did not say it was being used for crimefighting, and Mr Rakich was shocked when the story broke.

"It could well be that the law enforcement authorities of the world will descend on us," he said.

Jon Neilson of the Police Commissioner's Office said he was unaware of any plans for New Zealand officers to use SkunkShot.

"That's the stuff you use to keep animals off the garden," he mused. "I tried it and the cats came back."

Some of the criminals have come back in Los Angeles, too. Mr Mathers told the newspaper that the crooks were fighting a rearguard action with air freshener.

"We hit 'em with SkunkShot and they come back with Glade."

The smell test

Our reporter whiffs SkunkShot.

'A fruity number with a stomach-churning undertone of back-seat baby sick and the lingering presence of old blue cheese.

Best enjoyed at arm's length.'