Patent ID: 8717173

Claim:
An alarm device configured to detect and deter an unauthorized opening of a lid of a product container, the alarm device comprising: a circuit board portion and a sensing unit mounted under the lid of the product container, the lid having an open state and a closed state detectable by the sensing unit; an audible alarm mounted on the circuit board portion; the sensing unit comprising: first and second cantilevers that extend generally parallel to each other and outward from a mounting base, the first and second cantilevers comprising first anchored ends extending generally out of the mounting base and second non-anchored ends, the second non-anchored ends crisscrossed, bowed outwardly in a relatively opposed direction and crisscrossed again to form an ovate-shaped opening therebetween before finally ending parallel to each other again, the first cantilever at the second non-anchored end having a first electrical terminal and having a nodule on a top side thereof that abuts an inner surface of the lid when the product container is in the closed state and acts to push the first cantilever towards the second cantilever at the non-anchored ends, and wherein the second cantilever at the second non-anchored end comprises a second electrical terminal facing said first electrical terminal biased by the cantilevers in an electrically non-contacted state maintained so long as the lid is in the open state; wherein if the lid is in the closed state, the lid presses against the nodule that in turn presses on the first cantilever's second non-anchored end such that the first and second facing electrical terminals are in an electrically-connected state; a switching unit mounted on the circuit board portion and comprising a magnetically-operated pin capable of selectively extending into the ovate-shaped opening to lock the first and second electrical terminals of the first and second cantilevers into the electrically-connected state regardless of the open/closed state of the lid; and wherein the audible alarm is activated upon opening of the lid if the switching unit does not have the magnetically-operated pin selectively extended into said ovate-shaped opening, and responsive to the first and second electrical terminals being in the electrically non-contacted state.