Whizzinator costly mistake in more ways than one
WAYNESBURG – A Bobtown man who confessed to his probation officer he was about to pass off fake urine during a drug test was charged with criminal attempt and furnishing drug-free urine, according to a criminal complaint.
Jeremy Michael Perry, 23, of 142 Larimer Ave., met with Greene County probation officer Brad Hartman Dec. 8 while wearing a device called a Whizzinator under his clothing.
Hartman told police Perry became nervous about giving the urine sample as part of his probation for a second offense driving under the influence charge in Washington County from April. Waynesburg Borough police Chief Rob Toth was called to the probation office by Hartman. Toth said Perry told him he purchased a Whizzinator, which is a prosthetic penis that holds fake urine, from the Internet for $120 in an attempt to pass the drug test.
He allegedly told Toth he did this because he had used three bags of heroin the prior evening and knew he would test positive. Toth said Perry told him he added Subutex and Klonopin, drugs prescribed to him, to the fake urine so it would appear to be his.
The Whizzinator made headlines when the president of the Signal Hill, Calif., company, Puck Technology Inc., that manufactures it, pleaded guilty in federal court to two charges of conspiring to sell drug paraphernalia and conspiring to defraud the government. Those charges were brought by in 2008 after undercover law enforcement agents purchased Whizzinator kits via the Internet.
The company’s kits contain heating pads, a temperature indicator and lab grade dried synthetic urine. It promises free refills of the synthetic urine for spending at least $99.95 on a kit.
“Puck Technology and its owners, Wills and Catalano, sold masking agents or devices designed to help illicit drug users, usually those in public health or safety sensitive positions, pass employer drug tests,” said United States Attorney Robert S. Cessar in a 2008 release. “Their products were used to impair and impede the lawful governmental functions of the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, an agency of the United States, in overseeing and establishing federal workplace drug testing programs.”
As part of the sentence handed down on April 8, 2010, a federal judge included forfeiture of the company’s assets and dissolution. Owner, Gerald Wills, a resident of San Pedro, Calif., was sentenced to six months in prison followed by three years supervised release. Co-owner, Robert Dennis Catalano, a resident of Huntington Beach, Calif., received a sentence of three years’ probation.
However, the product, under the name the Real Whizzinator, from Atlanta, Ga.-based company, Massive Dynamics, is still available over the Internet with a disclaimer on its website that it is ‘not to be used for any illegal activities including use to defeat a lawfully administered drug test.’
Craig Wise, adult and juvenile probation director for Greene County, said such devices are extremely difficult to use in the probation setting where the person is monitored closely.
“We get a lot of homemade stuff,” Wise said. Probation officers added they had only seen two or three real Whizzinators come through the Greene County probation office. “We’ve had them use other people’s urine, and it has tested positive.”
“Some try cleaners from health food stores. Those don’t work,” Wise said, noting whatever they use to try to beat the system, “We put them straight in jail. It’s a crime to do it.”
Perry faces a preliminary hearing before Greene County Magisterial District Judge Lou Dayich at 10 a.m. Feb. 10.