Imagine this: A robber goes into a bank with a gun and threatens to kill anyone who moves. He tries to flee after grabbing the money. While the robber is scurrying out the door, however, a net drops from the ceiling and the robber is wrapped up like a dumpling.

Similar scenarios have already appeared in comic books and movies, but up until now that is where they have stayed, writes Shelley Shan in the Taipei Times today.

But now, Hsieh Kuo-cheng, who runs a security firm in Taiwan, has turned this seemingly fantastic idea into reality. He is now known as the inventor of “A Net Trapping Device to Catch a Bank Robber Immediately” and winner of one of the 2007 Ig Nobel prizes handed out by the Annals of Improbable Research in Boston.

You can view a video demonstration of the system by going here and clicking play on the video insert.