'Bum Bot' patrols Atlanta neighborhood

ATLANTA, March 28 (UPI) -- An Atlanta bar owner said his "Bum Bot," a robot he created to chase drug dealers and prostitutes out of his neighborhood, is successful in scaring criminals.

Rufus Terrill said he regularly sends the remote-controlled Bum Bot -- which he created from a Cajun meat cooker, a mechanical scooter, a walkie-talkie wired to a home-alarm speaker, an infrared camera, a spotlight and a homemade water cannon -- out to patrol the neighborhood around his bar after dark, the Los Angeles Times reported Friday.

He said drug dealers and prostitutes encountered by his creation are confronted with a warning that if they don't immediately leave the area, they will be blasted by the water cannon.

"It scares the bejesus out of 'em," Terrill said.

However, Anita Beaty, executive director of the non-profit Metro Atlanta Task Force for the Homeless, said the robot, which frequently targets people surrounding a homeless shelter nearby the bar, hinders more than it helps.

"Not everybody outside our building is a drug dealer, and when they are, we want them arrested as much as (Terrill). A robot is not the way to solve anything," she said.