Barnacles have appeared on vehicles in Saskatchewan's capital, but they're not sticky little water-dwelling crustaceans.
When a Barnacle is placed on a vehicle’s windshield, commercial-grade suction cups latch onto the glass with more than 450 kilograms of force. It can only be removed once the driver uses a QR code on the device to pay outstanding fines.A private company in Ontario has signed on to use Barnacles, and the University of Regina has begun deploying the device for people who persistently fail to pay fines.
The university has used the Barnacle four times since January, and it's been the subject of much social media attention. People have posted online different ways to try and unstick the Barnacle, from running defrost to using a credit card to pull up the suction cups. "If you drive into a parking lot and happen to see a few of these on a windshield, you aren't parking illegally there," he said. "You are going to move … you are going to pay for your parking."