Theft-resistant SafeSkin case puts your precious iPhone on lockdown

Your phone is much more than just a phone — it’s a way to contact friends and family, it’s our personal assistant, it’s an archive of our trips, and it’s a convenient camera. Our phones being stolen is a nightmare scenario for many of us. Thankfully for your heart, the SafeSkin case aims to make that anxiety a thing of the past.

The SafeSkin case doesn’t necessarily look much different from your usual protective case. It’s made from a tough material called PC ABS, which helps to make it drop-proof, and comes with a leather back panel in brown, black, or white — to match your iPhone. But look a little closer and you’ll start to see some of the extreme safety measures.

Once the case is on, it can’t be removed except by using the key to input the correct color code into the back of the case. But why would you want the case to be stuck on? One of the first things that any thief will do with a stolen phone is turn it off. That stops any software tracking solutions from working, and ensures it’s easier to later get control of the phone. Once the case detects the phone’s been taken, it will lock down the phone’s touchscreen and on/off button, making the phone immediately less desirable to the thief.

The case detects it’s been stolen through use of the second included accessory, the Eye. The Eye is a small gadget that connects to the SafeSkin app via Bluetooth, and can be set to alert the wearer if the Eye and the phone are taken too far apart from each other. Once detected, the Eye will send a signal to the case to go into lockdown, and will then emit an ear-splitting 100 decibel alarm on both devices until they’re reunited and deactivated.

“After having my phone stolen six times, yes, six times, I had enough and decided it was time to turn a reoccurring pain into an opportunity by finding a solution,” said SafeSkin co-founder and head of business development Julia Sohajda. “We sat down for a brainstorming session with my brothers and the idea of SafeSkin was born.”

The SafeSkin is currently being crowdfunded on IndieGoGo, and the creators say it will be available for the iPhone 7, iPhone 8, and the iPhone X. While there are no Android versions yet, a Q&A on the IndieGoGo page says that Android versions are being planned.