Sound Assault on Mall Loafers

Mall officials in Washington D.C. are fighting back against young people accused of causing a ruckus outside shopping areas by installing a device that emits an annoying high-pitched frequency only audible to young people.

1 minute read

September 15, 2010, 5:00 AM PDT

By Nate Berg


Known as "the Mosquito", the device is a popular youth-deterrent in the UK, where shop keepers have used it to keep kids away from strorefronts.

"The Mosquito, as the $1,000 device is called, hung outside the Chinatown entrance to the Gallery Place Metro station Tuesday, annoying its intended targets and then some. The young and a few not-so-young could hear the piercing, constant beeeeep, beeeeep, beeeeep.

'I can definitely hear it very loudly,' 19-year-old Brooke Sawinski said. 'It's pretty blasting.'"

Tuesday, September 14, 2010 in The Washington Post

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