Could teen's invention curb sexual assault?
RANCHO PALOS VERDES, Calif. -- A young inventor says she's come up with a unique way to help women prevent sexual assault, reports CBS Los Angeles.
Crystal Sanchez, 18, won a Los Angeles entrepreneurship contest for her plans to make the Guardian Locket, a security beacon disguised as a necklace. A discrete button on the back of the locket will use a cellular chip to alert loved ones and the police that the wearer is being attacked, said Sanchez.
"When you click it once, it'll send you a false phone call to ward (i.e. scare) off any predators that may be lurking around," said Sanchez, who first came up with the idea while working on an economics project at the Environmental Charter School in Lawndale, Calif. "With another two clicks, it'll send your current location to the local authorities and whoever else you have listed on the app."
Sanchez, a graduating high school senior who will begin classes at the University of California, Irvine this fall, said she began thinking about new ways to prevent sexual assault after a friend was raped during her freshman year of college.
"We just live out our daily lives and most of us don't do anything about it," Sanchez said.
She entered the idea in the Network for Teaching Entrepreneurship Regional Youth Challenge, beating out high school inventors from across Los Angeles. Sanchez was honored Tuesday at the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year gala in Beverly Hills, where she was the youngest entrepreneur in attendance.
"Seeing everyone around me support me and believe in my dream, it's just ... it's incredible," Sanchez said. She now hopes to raise investment capital to fund the launch of a business selling the Guardian Locket.
Sanchez is trying to have a working locket by the end of the summer, so she can compete in a national competition this fall, when she'd have a chance to win a $25,000 prize.