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He Saw the Light … and It Was Flashing HELP

When Dave Meester prayed for help, he got the Help Alerter. Dave said something from above gave him the idea for a license plate holder that quickly converts into a flashing Help sign.

Dave Meester had been downsized out of a job six months before, and his spirits needed a lift. He looked to the heavens for help and found his answer in giving help to others.

Dave thought of the time his wife, Barbara, had to pull her car to the side of the road and wait nearly three hours before anyone stopped to help her. Add to that the frequent carjacking stories in the news, and Dave realized the need for drivers to have some way to safely alert others that they need help.

Dave doesn’t think of himself as an inventor. He credits the idea of the Help Alerter to divine inspiration and went straight to his workshop. Weeks later, he came out with a license plate holder that quickly converted into a flashing Help sign.

He made the first prototype case out of plywood, borrowed the pivot arms from pieces of an old fishing tackle box, and used dome lightbulbs for lighting. Since then, he’s refined the design and spent serious money to have good prototypes handmade by a prototype builder.

He plans on offering two models—one that is manually activated by getting out of the car and pulling the license plate down, and a more expensive model that is activated inside the car with a button on the floorboard.

“Say you’re being carjacked. If you have a cell phone, could you use it? If you have OnStar, could you use it? Probably not without jeopardizing your situation. A silent button on the floorboard that activates the Help Alerter might be the only thing that would help you in this situation. This could be the only chance you have. People would see the flashing Help sign and call the police.”

Dave spent a year of weekends and evenings doing his own market research. “I would find a stretch of road where I’d pretend my car had broken down. I’d pull over to the side of the road, use my flashers, sit inside the vehicle—and wait. The average time I’d sit there before anyone would stop was twenty to thirty minutes. Then I’d do the same thing using the Help Alerter. My wait time was between eight and ten minutes—a drastic reduction in time! Plus, a police officer would stop more often when I used the Help Alerter than when I didn’t.”

He discovered that the higher police officer involvement was a result of people calling 911 on their cell phones to report a stranded motorist, even if they didn’t stop.

Dave explains, “A lot of people, especially women, are afraid to stop to help. But when they see that flashing request for help, they will make a phone call.”

Dave’s not yet at the point of having the Help Alerter manufactured. That’s the next step. I’d guess I have $60,000 to $75,000 invested. A good chunk of that went to three marketing groups, who were supposed to make it a reality and get it to market. None of them produced a good result. That’s why Richard, a retired friend, and I are doing it ourselves. Richard wants to get involved because he feels it will be a hot item. I think they’ll go like hotcakes.”

Of 250 people Dave surveyed, 80 percent said they would buy the Help Alerter when it becomes available. He’s got believers in the local sheriff’s department, too. The York County, South Carolina, sheriff’s department wants to do a TV commercial to endorse it. Dave knows an official endorsement can go a long way in alerting the public and advancing this venture.

Dave didn’t think he could get a patent—he says he’s no genius. He was sure someone else had already come up with this simple idea. But the patent was his for the taking. Perhaps there was a bit of divine intervention for this invention. After all, Dave did get a sign.