From a bad apartment to Dragon’s Den

By Graeme McNaughton/The Oshawa Express

It was after learning that their apartment building’s assistant superintendent had a criminal record that John Nichol realized there had to be something better to lock his door.

Little did he know that just a few years later, Nichol would be on TV to try to sell his idea to a group of entrepreneurs.

“We sold our house and moved into an apartment on Simcoe Street South, and it looks nice during the day, but I guess at night it got pretty crazy. A lot of crime going on,” Nichol says. “Our kids were still younger, and we found out the assistant super had just gotten out of jail for armed robbery, so I thought I got to put something on the door, and I couldn’t find anything.”

Using the tools available to him at a steel shop he was working at at the time, Nichol put together the first prototype of what is now known as the Deadbolt Arrest. While the device itself has gone under several upgrades and redesigns, the principle of the device is still the same: a sliding mechanism attached on the inside of the door with a pin that prevents a locked door from being opened while someone is inside.

Once word got around the apartment complex of Nichol’s invention, other tenants wanted one too. It was not long after that the Nichol family moved out of that apartment building, and the prototype for the Deadbolt Arrest was put away. However, one day while in their new unit, someone entered the apartment while Nichol was inside.

“One day, John was in the toilet when he heard a knock on the door. Thought maybe it was the paper boy, so he ignored it. Next thing he knew, three maintenance people came in, and there he was on the toilet,” Michelle, John’s wife, tells The Oshawa Express. “It was after that, he went into the toolbox, pulled (the Deadbolt Arrest) out, and put it on the door.”

Now, several years later, the duo are marketing the latest version of the Deadbolt Arrest, and went on the CBC show Dragon’s Den to try to sell a share in their young company to one of the show’s panelists.

While the pitch didn’t go as well as planned – nobody was taking the chance on the Deadbolt Arrest – Michelle says she and her husband learned a lot of useful information from the panelists, who gave them tips moving forward.

However, Michelle says the two also learned a lot of information about TV and how a session that lasted approximately an hour could be edited down to a much shorter piece for broadcast.

“It wasn’t a good portrayal. It was edited, they made a mockery,” Michelle says. “(John) did a lot of speaking in that hour, but they didn’t give him much air time.”

Despite none of the show’s panelists investing in the product, John says things are looking good moving forward, with the duo receiving numerous phone calls and emails after the show aired by people wanting to buy the product. As well, the Nichols are due to meet with a big box retailer in the coming weeks, with the possibility the product may be licensed.

“I don’t care if it’s under my name or it’s under their’s. If they say they want to carry it under their brand, go for it,” John says. “Doesn’t matter as long as we get paid.”